BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 
•»• 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


~ 


untight 


and 


Shadow 


OF 


AMIGA'S  GHEfiT  CITIES. 


By  the  Author  of  "Heroes  of  the  Plains,"  etc. 


ILLUSTRATED  WITH  NUMEROUS  ENGRAVINGS. 


PHILADELPHIA,    PA. 

WEST  PHILADELPHIA  PUBLISHING  CO., 

3941  Market  Street. 


Copyrighted, 

1889, 
By  HISTORICAL  PUBLISHING  Co. 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


PROLOGUE. 

WHY  THE  VEIL  HAS  BEEN  UPLIFTED. 


THE  following  pages,  descriptive  of  five  distinct  phases 
in  American  civilization,  have  been  prepared  solely  for 
purposes  of  enlightenment,  which,  it  is  my  earnest  hope, 
may  be  regarded  in  the  light  of  wholesome  revelation. 
While  the  descriptions  are  devoted  to  unmasking  social 
evils,  they  are  not  prompted  by  pessimistical  reflections, 
but  rather  to  show  the  dark  and  ominous  sides  of  national 
life,  that  the  beauties  of  refinement  and  purity  may  ap- 
pear nobler  by  comparison. 

The  rich  are  too  often  painted  with  colors  which  fawn- 
ing sycophancy  delights  to  use,  and  are  made  subjects 
for  adulation  even  though  their  virtues  be  the  bane  of 
society.  I  have,  therefore,  sought  to  dispel  illusions,  and 
present  pictures  of  vice  which  may  serve  a  useful  pur- 
pose in  estimating  metropolitan  life. 

The  labor  involved  in  this  work  has  not  been  altogether 

pleasant  or  agreeable  to  my  better  feelings.     Recognizing 

the  importance  of  faithfulness  in  my  descriptions,  and  to 

»j      familiarize  myself  thoroughly  with  the  subjects  treated, 

O      I  visited  personally  the  cities  of  NEW  YORK,  WASHING- 

_£      TON  CITY,  SAN  FRANCISCO,  SALT  LAKE  CITY  and  NEW 

O      ORLEANS,  and  remained  an  appreciable  length  of  time  in 

09      each,  studying  the  phases  of  their  social  life. 

No  apology  shall  be  offered  for  the  language  herein 
employed,  for  I  have  diligently  striven  to  avoid  pruriency 
by  using  chaste  euphemisms  when  the  subject  was  of 
offensive  character.  My  motive  is  none  other  than  a 
wish  to  enlighten  the  public  upon  matters  which,  if  uni- 
versally understood,  would  be  a  blessing  to  all  humanity, 
by  mitigating  misery,  restoring  domestic  and  social  con- 


2  PROLOGUE. 

fidence,  and  by  keeping  pure  the  morals  of  our  youth. 
In  describing  the  hidden  or  secret  vices  of  city  life,  I 
have  tried  to  remove  the  seductive  masks  which  sin  as- 
sumes and  expose  its  hideous  deformities.  The  pitfalls 
of  depravity  are  on  every  side,  how  important  then  is  the 
duty  of  those  who  know  them,  to  erect  sign-boards  of 
warning  that  none  may  fall  therein. 

11  Siii  is  a  monster  of  such  hideous  mien, 
That,  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen." 

It  is  the  sentiment  expressed  in  this  popular  couplet  that 
has  prompted  and  directed  me  in  the  preparation  of  this 
volqjne,  and  if  I  succeed  in  turning  one  soul  from  a  dan- 
gerous contemplation  of  alluring  vices,  or  influence  one 
to  an  honorable  life,  it  will  be  a  full  measure  of  compen- 
sation for  this  labor. 

I  have  to  acknowledge  obligations  to  J.  M.  Dorcy,  Esq., 
New  York's  most  noted  detective,  for  services  rendered 
me  while  visiting  the  Metropolis,  and  also  to  John  Avon, 
Esq.,  a  world-famous  detective  of  San  Francisco,  who 
gave  me  such  valuable  assistance  in  my  studies  of  Chinese 
life.  Mr.  Avon  was  guide  to  President  Hayes,  and  also 
to  Gen.  Grant  and  party,  during  their  trips  through  Chi- 
natown, and  his  knowledge  of  the  imported  Orientals 
causes  his  services  to  be  sought  by  all  distinguished  peo- 
ple visiting  San  Francisco.  In  Salt  Lake  I  had  the  co- 
operation of  so  many  prominent  Gentiles  that  it  would  be 
tedious  and  a  needless  sacrifice  of  space,  to  mention  them 
individually.  Washington  City  and  New  Orleans  are 
familiar  to  me  through  repeated  visits  on  journalistic 
missions.  Whatever  may  be  the  omissions  in  this  work, 
absolute  reliance  may  be  placed  on  the  truth  of  every  de- 
scription and  declaration  it  contains.  With  what  success 
my  self -allotted  task  has  been  performed,  I  leave  for  the 
judgment  of  my  readers. 

J.  W.  B. 

ST.  Louis,  April,  1882 


CONTENTS. 


NEW  YORK. 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  GREAT  MAELSTROM  OF  VICE. 

PAGES. 

New  York  City. — First  Impressions  of  a  Visitor. — The  Jostle  and 
Jam  of  Broadway. — A  Comparison  between  Men  and  Women. 
— Why  so  many  Strangers  fall  into  Meshes  laid  by  Swindlers. 
— The  Dangers  to  which  Beautiful  Women  are  exposed. — 
Why  so  many  Women  visit  the  Great  Metropolis. — Harvesters 
and  Gleaners  of  Unsophisticated  Virtue. — Fidelity  in  Lustrous 
Garniture  Floating  in  an  Ocean  of  Monstrous  Vice,  -  -  25 — 30 

CHAPTER  II. 

CLERICAL     PARASITES. 

The  Anomalies  of  Social  Life. — Wine,  Women  and  Cards. — Follow- 
ing the  Edicts  of  Fashion — Female  Dissipation  in  Club  Rooms. 
— Licentiousness  and  Affluence  Twin  Sisters. — How  Fortunes 
are  Acquired. — The  Components  of  Aristocratic  Society. — 
Marriages  and  Funerals  in  High  Life. — Ministerial  Opportuni- 
ties.— Consoling  Beautiful  Widows.  —  Cultivating  Illegitimate 
Pastures. — Why  Ministers  are  always  Exonerated  after  Pluck- 
ing Forbidden  Fruits. — Nature's  Apology. — Following  Patri- 
archal Example. — Salaries  of  Fashionable  Ministers. — The  Real 
Disciples  of  Christ. — Mission  Women  and  Clergymen. — Who 
shall  receive  the  Reward  ?  -  -  30—40 

CHAPTER  III. 

CONCERT  HALLS  AND  BEER  GARDENS. 

Some  Dangerous  Quarters. — The  Slung-Shot,  Sand-Club  and  Knife. 
— Disposition    of   Murdered  Men. — A    Visit  to    the  Concert 
Halls. — The  Effects  of  Missionary  Work. — Changes  in  Gotham. 
3 


4  CONTENTS. 

—Kit  Burns'  Dog  Pits.— Songs  of  Praise.— "Standing Treat." 
— Flag  of  our  Union,  with  a  smell  of  the  Faderland. — Belmonico 
Hall  and  its  Pretty  Girls.— A  Peculiar  Set  of  Bar  Maids.— Atlan- 
tic Garden  with  a  Female  Band. — Owney  Geogahean's  Boxing 
Hall. — An  Irishman's  Introduction. — Whew,  Smell  his  Breath. 
— A  Market  Place  without  an  Owner. — Harry  Hill's  Theatre. — 
Stage  Talent  sans  Beauty. — Forbidden  dalliances,  which  Modesty 
Refuses  to  Describe.— Theo.  Allen's  Dive.— The  Wickedest  Man 
and  his  New  Establishment.—"  Black  and  Tan,"  or  "  Chemise 
and  Drawers." — A  Mixing  of  Colors. — Kissing  his  Partner. — 
The  Cremorne  Garden. — Seventy-five  Pretty  Barmaids. — A  Talk 
with  the  Prettiest. — "  Buy  a  Bottle  of  Wine  and  let's  Drink  it 
Privately,"— The  Old  Story  of  a  Broken  Casket,  -  -  41—61 

CHAPTER  IV. 

PROSTITUTION. 

Prostitution  Generally  Considered. — Society  Responsible. — An  Ex- 
ample.— Wrecking  a  Beautiful  Girl. — The  Dreams  of  Youth. — A 
Hyperion -Satyr. — The  Lascivious  Waltz.  —  Promise  of  Mar- 
riage.— Only  a  Letter. — She  Has  Fainted. — Pity  a  Poor,  Old 
Mother. — Wrecked  and  Deserted. — A  Terrible  Soliloquy. — 
Leaving  Home. — The  Jutting  Cliff. — Thrown  up  by  the  Sea. — 
Will  God  Forgive  her  ?  ...  61 — 69 

CHAPTER  V. 

PROSTITUTION  CONTINUED. 

Another  Example. — A  Wolf  among  New  England  Flocks. — A  Lit- 
tle Maiden  Dreaming  at  the  Fireside. — Golden  Visions. — En- 
trance of  The  Despoiler. — How  he  won  her  Love  and  Confi- 
dence.— Drawn  to  New  York  by  Specious  Promises. — The 
Mock  Marriage. — Happy  Days. — Love's  Offering. — Desertion. 
— Alone  in  the  Storm. — Drinking  Bitter  Dregs. — God  help 
her  bear  this  Burden. — Sinking  by  the  Wayside. — Lifting  her 
Eyes  to  Heaven. — At  the  Foot  of  the  Cross. — Dead,  but  who 
shall  Mourn. — A  Poem. — Society  to  Blame. — Hugging  a  Ser- 
pent.— In  Palaces  of  Sin. — Practices  of  Painted  Harlots. — 
Traps  for  the  Lustful. — A  Tour  of  the  Lowest  Haunts. — Parlor 
Pictures. — At  the  Dance. — High  Kickers. — The  Art  of  Caress- 
ing.— Down  among  the  Sewage. — Etchings  from  Life.  —  The 
Dead  Bawd's  Epitaph,  ....  69—88 


CONTENTS.  5 

CHAPTER  VI. 

ASSIGNATION  HOUSES. 

How  the  Secret  Vice  is  Practiced.— Boarding  House  Advertise- 
ments.— How  Country  People  are  sometimes  Deluded. — A  Paul 
Pry. — Innocent  Girls  who  seek  cheap  rooms. — Who  they  are 
liable  to  Encounter. — Assignation  among  the  Rich  — Precious 
Secrets. — Society  Belles  in  Heavy  Veils. — A  Little  Blackmail. 
— Down  at  Coney  Island. — Detectives  on  the  Hunt. — Divorce. 
—A  Moral  for  all,  -  -  88—93 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  RICH. 

New  York  the  Financial  Centre. — Concomitants  of  Wealth. — Its 
Millionaires. — Jay  Gould's  Domestic  Life.  —Out  of  Fashion's 
Whirl. — George  Gould. — His  Studiousness  and  Promise. — Van- 
derbilt's  Delusions. — $50,000,000  in  Government  Bonds. — Are 
the  Rich  Happy  ? — Routine  Life  among  the  Fashionable. — 
Amusements.  —  Punctilious  Mannerisms.  —  The  Fancy  Dress 
Ball. — A  Revelry  of  Silk  Stockings  and  Intoxicated  Heels. — 
Temptations. — Drunkenness. — Spirit  Mediums  and  their  Pa- 
trons.— Going  to  the  Fortune-Teller. — All  is  vanity,  -  93 — 106 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

4f 

THE  POOR. 

A  Contradistinction. — The  Poverty  Sink  of  America. — A  Medley  of 
Closely  Packed  Humanity. — The  Italians  and  Chinese. — Impi- 
ous Trade  of  the  Padrones. — Shocking  Brutality. — Street  Musi- 
cians.— Scenes  of  Distress. — A  Stroll  through  the  Alleys. — 
Victims  for  the  Potter's  Field. — Buds  of  Beauty  growing  in  Beds 
of  Pollution.— A  Sad  Scene.— Taking  Mother's  Body  to  the 
Grave.— Alone  in  the  World.— A  Faithful  Sister.— Out  of  Work. 
— Pictures  of  Agony. — Seeking  Aid. — "  Blessed  are  they  that 
Mourn." — Which  of  two  Roads. — A  Plunge  into  Oblivion. — 
Fished  out  of  her  Grave. — Dreadful  Accident  in  Tenement  Quar- 
ters. —  Mangled  Bodies.  —  New  York's  Charities.  —  What 
Have  the  Millionaires  Done  ? — The  Elevated  Railway  and  the 
Blessings  it  confers,  -  -  -  106 — 125 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

CRIMINALS  AND  CUNNING  FRAUDS. 

Why  New  York  has  so  many  Criminals. — Division  and  Subdivisi** 
of  Classes.  —  Burglars. — Pick-Pockets.  —  Confidence  Men.— 
Scenes  in  the  Tombs  Police  Court. — Pictures  Illuminated  witb 
Humor  and  Stained  by  Misery. — Society  arraigned  with  Pov- 
erty.— Tricks  of  Swindlers.— Operations  of  Burglars. — Fleecing 
the  Banks. — Visitor  Brown  taken  in. — Visiting  Toi>  Parker's 
Nephew.— Experience  of  a  Rich  Philadelphian,  -  -  1*5— *tf 

CHAPTER  X. 

SOME    VALUABLE    EXPOSURES. 

Baiting  and  Catching  Gudgeons. — Panel  Doors. — The  Outraged 
Husband  Game. — Feasting  Love  under  Difficulties. — Advertis- 
ing Tricks. — An  Exposure  of  the  More  Popular  Ones. — Evad- 
ing the  Obscene  Literature  Law. — Lotteries. — The  Manner  in 
which  Pick- Pockets  Work. — Description  of  the  Instruments 
they  use. — Shoplifters  and  their  Practices. — Confidence  Games. 
—A  Safe  Bet.— -Tricks  Exposed.— The  Gold  Ring  and  Thim- 
bles.— Conclusion,  ......  137 — 151 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

SACRED  MEMORIES  AND  HOMELY  FACTS. 

The  Grand  Conception  of  Republicanism — Hallowed  Associations — 
Bulwarks  of  National  Security — Magnificent  Architecture — Re- 
luctant to  Lift  the  Veil — Exaggerated  Ideas  of  Congressmen — 
A  Picture  of  Bucholic  Simplicity — Pumpkin  Pies,  Babies  and 
Cross-Roads  Whiskey — Factors  in  a  Successful  Canvass — Ro- 
mancing— How  Congressmen  Appear  in  Fact — Elections  in  City 
and  Country — Whooping  Up  the  Boys — Packing  Conventions — 
Meteoric  Flashes  of  Genius — English  and  American  Politics — 
Who  Receive  Appointments — Roads  that  lead  to  Oblivion,  -  153 — 160 


CONTENTS.  7 

CHAPTER  II. 

PECULIARITIES  OF  WASHINGTON  SOCIETY. 

New  York  and  Washington  Compared — Summer  and  Winter — Pecca- 
dillos and  Punctillios — A  Feast  of  Sensuality — The  Plenipoten- 
tiar>'s  Reception — How  a  Fashionable  Party  is  Conducted — 
Pictures  of  the  Participants — A  Venerable  Senator's  Mash — 
Circe  in  the  Role  of  a  Railroad  Lobbyist — Her  Career — Another 
Beautiful  Adventuress — A  Bachelor  Foreign  Minister  and  his 
Daughter — His  Opportunities — Wine  and  License  after  Mid- 
night— Cause  and  Effect,  .....  160—165 

CHAPTER  III. 

OFFICE-SEEKERS — WA  SHINGTON   SCANDALS. 

The  Mad  Rush  of  Applicants — An  Army  of  Women — Selling  Char- 
acter for  Clerkships — 10,000  Beautiful  Women — Sly  Winks  be- 
hind a  Wire  Screen — Lifting  the  Veil — A  Terrible  Drama  of 
Sensuality — Assignation  Houses — Who  Patronize  Them — A 
Lustful  Old  Senator — Two  Gentlemen  who  lived  off  the  Fat  of 
Washington  Belles — A  Pretty  Postal  Clerk  and  her  Amorous 
Chief — The  Ruin  Wrought  by  a  Spanish  Diplomat — Sending 
Their  Daughter  Abroad  for  her  Health — A  Cabinet  Officer's 
Wife  and  a  Presidential  Aspirant — The  Conquests  of  a  Caloric 
M.  C. — Grazing  in  Green  Pastures — Tackling  a  Beauty — An 
Earthquake  at  Welcker's — Trying  to  Captivate  vi  tt  armis  -  165 — 175 

CHAPTER  IV. 

WASHINGTON    SCANDALS— CONTINUED 

The  "  Cattery  " — An  Assignation  Room  in  the  Capitol — A  Singular 
Case — A  Kentucky  Congressman  and  his  Concubine — Gen. 
Breckenridge's  Mysterious  Note — A  Mother  and  her  Illegitimate 
Son  —The  Chivalrous  Part  taken  by  Gen.  B. — A  Bright  Young 
Lawyer — The  Ladies'  Audience  Chamber  —  How  Flashily 
Dressed  Chere  Amis  view  the  Senate  Sittings — Stolen  Sweets — 
A  Case  in  Point,  -  176—182 

CHAPTER  V. 

WASHINGTON   SCANDALS— CONTINUED. 

Changes  Produced  by  the  War — A  Story  Beginning  with  President 
Lincoln's  Cabinet — The  Beautiful  Daughter  of  one  of  his  Sec- 


8  CONTENTS. 

retarics — How  she  Ruled  Washington  Society — Youthful  Adven- 
ture— Marriage  to  a  Rich  Bachelor — Return  to  Washington — 
Forgetting  Marriage  Vows — Intrigues  with  a  Popular  Senator — 
Private  Seances  at  Wormley's — A  Senatorial  Methuselah  and  an 
s  Ambitious  Cleopatra — Smilax  and  Myrtle — Serious  Charges  of 
Unfaithfulness — Was  the  Wife  Guilty  ? — Suit  for  Divorce — Run- 
ning through  the  Streets  of  Washington  Dishabille — A  Pathetic 
Sequel,  -  182 — 190 

CHAPTER   VI. 

WASHINGTON    SCANDALS— CONTINUED. 

A  Service  Officer  and  his  Pretty  Treasury  Girl — Distilling  Precious 
Sweets — Wanting  More  Room — Construction  of  a  Private  Palace 
for  his  Young  Mistress — Rare  Revels  in  Rich  Pastures — The  Dis- 
covery— An  Outraged  Wife  shows  her  Mettle — Raiding  the  Vo- 
luptuaries— The  Officer  Arrested  for  Embezzling  Government 
Funds — Another  Public  Functionary  in  Trouble — How  he  Found 
a  Pretty  Girl  who  didn't  Object — How  his  Wife  entered  Protest 
— A  Cowhiding  on  the  Public  Street — A  Lecherous  Governor — 
Pardoning  a  Condemned  Husband  for  the  Sacrifice  of  a  Wife's 
Honor — Getting  Even — Infecting  the  Infamous  Executive — A 
Horrible  Death,  -  -  190—199 

CHAPTER  VII. 

CORRUPTION    AND   DEBAUCHMENT. 

Frauds  in  Office — Greed  and  Lust  Inseparable — Power  of  the  Lobby 
— The  Curse  of  Party — Burdens  which  Popular  Suffrage  Im- 
poses— Why  so  few  Honest  Men  are  in  Office — A  Notable  Illus- 
tration— Making  $15,000,000  in  Fifteen  Years — Influences  to 
which  Congressmen  are  Subjected — Female  Lobbyists — How 
Charges  of  Bribery  are  Evaded — Gambling  for  a  Stake  already 
Won — The  Efficacy  in  a  Piece  of  Fresh  Crinoline — An  Old  Leg- 
islator's Visit  to  a  Beautiful  Lobbyist — Preparing  for  a  Mash — 
In  a  Bed  of  Aromatic  Clover — Pulling  Down  the  Blinds — Sweet 
Coddling  over  a  New  Measure — How  the  Old  Lothario's  Sup- 
port was  obtained,  -  -  200 — 206 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

FRAUDULENT  MEASURES  AND    GAMBLING  PRACTICES. 

Other  Schemes  for  Bribing  Legislators — Credit  Mobilier — Arrears  of        ons 
PensionsBill — $300,000,000  Filched  from  the  National  Treasury 


CONTENTS.  9 

— How  the  Bill  became  a  Law — How  it  is  made  the  Vehicle  of 
Fraud — Gambling  Customs — Playing  Poker  on  Government 
Money — A  New  Science  in  Book-keeping — Employes  Ruined  by 
Cards — A  Melancholy  Incident — Discharge  and  Ruin— Courting 
his  Wife — Calling  upon  God  for  Pardon — Shooting  his  Wife  and 
Killing  Himself— A  Touching  Letter,  -  207 — 216 

CHAPTER  IX. 

SOCIETY  DIVERTISEMENTS. 

How  Washington  People  Amuse  Themselves — Ministerial  Receptions 
— Two  Ministers  in  Disgrace — Ladies  in  Fencing  Matches — 
Private  Theatricals — The  Production  of  Adam  and  Eve — How 
to  Dress  the  Characters — A  Beautiful  Virginia  Belle  and  her 
Lover — In  Corselet  and  Bodice — Taking  a  Cue  from  John 
the  Baptist— An  Unfortunate  Accident — Losing  his  Covering  be- 
fore a  Select  Audience — Jumping  Through  a  Screen — Modesty 
Terribly  Shocked — Why  his  Fiance  went  Back  on  Him — Private 
-  Wine  Suppers — Where  and  How  they  are  Given — Manicures 
and  Artistic  Eye  Painters — Why  Congressmen  never  bring  their 
Wives  to  Washington — A  Word  Personal  in  Conclusion,  -  216 — 227 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


CHAPTER  I. 

DISCOVERY  AND  EARLY  SETTLEMENT. 

The  Interest  that  attaches  to  Stories  of  '49 — History  of  California — 
Early  Discoveries — Voyage  of  Commodore  Wilkes — Fremont's 
Overland  Journey — Settlement  of  Yerba  Buena,  now  San  Fran- 
cisco— Arrival  of  Mormons — The  First  Ship — Accidental  Dis  • 
covery  of  Gold — The  Metal  pronounced  nothing  but  a  Pyrite 
— A  Second  Discovery — The  Excitement  that  Followed — Every- 
body in  a  Delirium — Infecting  the  World — How  the  News  af- 
fected Congress — Europe,  Asia,  Australia  and  South  America 
Wild  with  Eagerness — The  Advent  of  Chinese — Some  of  John's 
Peculiarities,  .......  229 — 236 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  DAYS  OF  '49. 

Metamorphosis  of  Coloma  Valley — New  Discoveries — Gold,  Gold, 
Everywhere — Thousands  of  Sails  Bent  towards  California — 
Landing  of  the  First  Steamer — Opening  the  floodgates  of  Popu- 
lation— Mudscows  worth  more  than  Ships — A  Jumble  and  Babel 
— Stuck  in  the  Mud  —  Weighing  Gold  on  Steelyards — Ships 
Abandoned — Going  up  the  Sacramento  in  Dug-Outs — Humorous 
Scenes — Romancing  on  Fabulous  Finds — Eggs  Fifty  Dollars  per 
Dozen,  and  Cathartic  Pills  Ten  Dollars  Each — Indians  coming- 
in  for  Some  of  the  Profits — Rioting  and  Bursting  Up,  -  -  237 — 249 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  MOST  EXCITING    TIMES. 

San  Francisco  in  her  Glory — Wild  Speculation — Lots  Jumping  from 
$  1,000  to  $20,000  in  a  Day — A  Comedy  of  Paradoxes — Rent  of 
Houses — A  Fortune  fora  Shanty — Hoodlums  in  the  Ascendancy 
• — Murder  and  Robbery  in  the  Streets — Pioneer  Women — Bull 
and  Bear  Fights — Gambling — $20,000  on  a  Card — The  First 
Vigilantes — How  they  Purified  the  City — The  Second  Reign  of 
Terror — Vigilantes  Organize  for  Another  Campaign — Swift  Jus- 
tice— Assassination  in  the  Streets — Dreadful  Excitement — Lynch 
Law — Conflict  with  U.  S.  Authorities — Capture  of  Government 
Arms — Committee  of  601,  -  -  249 — 268 

CHAPTER  IV. 

SOCIAL  AND  COMMERCIAL  PECULIARITIES  OF  THE  CHINESE. 

The  Unnaturalized  Chinaman — How  China  Opened  her  Doors  to 
English  Cannons — The  Magic  Effect  of  Gold — Love  of  Native 
Land — Eternal  Allegiance  to  Chinese  Sovereignty — Superstitions 
— Metes  and  Bounds  of  Chinatown — A  Stroll  through  Alley  ways 
in  Chinese  Quarters — Singular  Sights — Ki-lo — Confucian  Dis- 
ciples selling  Priestly  Blessed  Amulets — How  Chinese  Advertise 
their  Occupation — Some  Mysterious  Packages — Decorating  for 
Festival  Occasions — Fortune  Telling  by  the  "Eight  Diagrams,"  268 — 275 

CHAPTER  V. 

CHINESE  PROSTITUTION  AND  OPIUM  SMOKING. 

A  Stroll  through  Underground  Chinatown — Singular  Ceremonies  to 
Keep  out  Evil  Spirits — Visiting  the  Brothel  Houses — Absence 


CONTENTS.  11 

of  Modesty — Configurations  of  a  Chinese  Woman — Legality  of 
Prostitution  in  China — No  loss  of  Caste  on  account  of  its  Prac- 
tice— Only  Five  Virtuous  Women  in  Two  Thousand — How  Chi- 
nese Women  are  Enslaved — Importation  for  Immoral  Purposes — 
Description  of  a  By-Court — Through  an  Underground  Passage — 
Visit  to  a  Thieves'  Den — Horrible  Fantasies — Catching  our  Pis- 
tols— Pestilential  Quarters — A  Dreadful  Hive — Sights  and  De- 
scription of  an  Aristocratic  Opium  Den — White  Men  and  Women 
Behind  the  Pipe — How  Opium  is  Smoked — DeQuincy's  Letters 
—Grant's  Visit  to  the  Opium  Dives,  -  -  276—285 

CHAPTER  VI. 

CHINESE  THEATRES  AND  RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP. 

Love  of  Amusement — Absurdities  of  Chinese  Theatres — Their  Con- 
struction and  Interior  Arrangement — Chinese  Musicians  and 
their  Instruments — Old  Dan  Tucker  and  Rye  Straw — Chinese 
Singing — Make-up  of  the  Star — Killing  a  Chinaman  on  the  Stage 
— A  Corpse  acting  as  Pall-Bearer — Plenty  of  Fun — An  Intermin- 
able and  Incessant  Orchestra — Music  by  the  Hundred  Feet — A 
Theatre  Property-Room — John  Chinaman's  Religion — Meta- 
physical Character  of  his  Ethics — Doctrines  taught  by  Confucius 
and  Mencius — The  Three  Leading  Sects — Description  of  a  Joss 
House — Roman  Oracles  and  Chinese  Spiritualism — Utilizing  the 
Gods  — Are  the  Chinese  essentially  Religious  ? — H  pw  Images 
are  used  to  Determine  the  Future — Confucius,  Living  or  Dead, 
Equally  Potential,  -  -  287 — 302 

CHAPTER  VII. 

SOCIAL,  BUSINESS  AND  GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS. 

Some  of  the  Thousand  Singular  Ceremonies — Betrothal,  Marriage, 
Divorce,  Death  and  Superstition — Distinction  between  the  Rich 
and  Poor  —  Intellectual  Training  —  Chinese  Schools  —  Why 
Women  are  not  Taught — Branches  of  Instruction — Chinese  Res- 
taurants— Description  of  an  Aristocratic  Dinner — The  Poor,  Mid- 
dle Class,  and  Wealthy — A  Translation  of  the  Bill-of-Fare — 
Seven  Courses  at  Dinner — The  Author's  Experience — Chop- 
Sticks  versus  Knives  and  Forks — A  Strong  Prejudice  against 
Beef — The  Chinese  Hades  full  of  Butchers — Punishment  pro- 
vided for  those  who  kill  Beeves  and  Buffaloes — A  Post  Prandial 
Smoke,  ....  .  302 — 310 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  TONSURE  AND  THE  SIX  COMPANIES. 

The  Chinaman's  Pig-Tail — A  History  of  the  Singular  Fashion — A 
Badge  of  Servitude — Death  Penalty  for  Wearing  the  Hair  like 
Other  Nations — The  Tonsorial  Artist  in  America — How  a  Cus- 
tomer is  Shaved — Two  Hours  without  a  Back  Rest — Cleaning 
his  Ears — John  Chinaman  as  a  Monopolist — How  he  Controls 
the  Hog  Trade — The  Six  Companies,  or  Highbinders— Full  His- 
tory of  the  Organization — Quintye's  Rebellion — A  Nihilistic 
Order — Their  Utopian  Ideas — Horrible  Initiatory  Ceremonies — 
Bloody  Daggers  and  Molten  Metal — Scaring  the  Heart  out  of  a 
Candidate — How  the  Funds  are  Secured — Six  Directors  with 
Six  Keys,  -  -  310 — 320 

CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  six  COMPANIES'  MEMORIAL. 

Natural  Cunning  of  the  Chinese — Their  Want  of  Advantages — The 
Labor  Question  Considered — Subsisting  on  Rats  and  Dogs — 
Why  White  Laborers  cannot  Compete — The  Law  of  Self-Pre- 
servation— Pacific  Coast  Agitation — The  Six  Companies'  Memo- 
rial— Shrewd  Diplomacy — A  Wonderful  Document — Chinese 
Answers  to  all  Opposition — Efforts  to  Modify  the  Burlingame 
Treaty— A  New  Bill  Before  Congress,  -  3^—326 

CHAPTER  X. 

FUNERAL  CEREMONIES. 

Disposition  of  the  Poor — Shipping  the  Bones  to  China — Reasons 
Why  Chinamen  must  finally  be  buried  in  their  Own  Country — 
An  Edict  against  Naturalization — Death  Penalty  for  Violation — 
Bidding  Farewell  to  the  Deceased — Lighting  the  Spirit's  Way — 
Giving  Food  to  the  Dead — Turning  the  Bridge-Ladder — Services 
Performed  by  Relatives — A  Chair  for  the  Dead  to  Sit  In — How 
the  Spirit  is  Carried  to  the  Hereafter — Dressing  the  Corpse — 
Placing  the  Body  in  a  Coffin — Making  a  Rag  Doll  to  Represent 
the  Deceased  —  Keeping  Watch  beside  the  Body  —  Chinese 
Graveyard  near  Lone  Mountain — Giving  John  a  Good  Send-Off 
— Setting  up  a  Circus—  Dining  off  the  Food  Prepared  for  the 
Dead — Dispersion,  -  -  yf] — 337 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  BEAUTIES  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO. 

Delicious  Climate  of  California — Cosmopolitan  Character  of  San 
Francisco — Beautiful  Women — Their  Perfect  Development— 


CONTENTS.  13 

The  Cable  Railroad — Aristocratic  Residences  on  Nob  Hill — 
Montgomery  Street  and  the  Speculators — Kearney  Street  and  its 
Lovely  Promenaders — Woodward's  Garden  —  San  Francisco 
Harbor — Abundance  of  Game — The  City's  New  Park — Elegant 
Drives — ClifftHouse  View — A  Thousand  Sea  Lions — Diving  One 
Hundred  Feet — The  Golden  Gate  and  its  Beauties — A  Stroll  on 
the  Beach— San  Francisco  the  Future  Summer  Resort,  -  337 — 343 


SALT  LAKE  CITY-POLYGAMY. 


CHAPTER. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON. 

The  Singular  Phases  of  Religion — The  True  Standard  of  Righteous- 
ness— Consideration  of  Mormonism — Joseph  Smith — His  Youth 
and  Surroundings — Divination  and  Exorcism — Finding  the  Seer- 
Stone —  His  Conversion — Visited  by  Angels — Transported  to 
Heaven — Revelations  from  God — Supernaturally  endowed  with 
Prophecy — The  Golden  Plates — An  Angel  delivers  the  History 
/—  Urim  and  Thummlm — Regarded  as  an  Imposter — Bearing 
Testimony  to  the  Revelations — A  Scribe  Engaged — Testing 
Smith's  Honesty— Miraculous  Virtues  in  the  Manuscript — Syn- 
opsis of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  -  345 — 354 

CHAPTER  II. 

AUTHENTICITY  OF  SMITH'S  WORKS — SENSUAL  MOTIVES. 

The  Real  Author  of  the  Book  of  Mormon — Solomon  Spaulding's 
Writings — His  Idealism  and  Religious  Prejudices — Chapter  8 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon — Churches  Decried— Stiff-necked  and 
Abominable — A  Paid  Ministry — Evils  of  a  Priesthood — How  Joe 
Smith  stole  Spaulding's  Manuscript — Josiah  Spaulding's  Testi- 
mony— Ignorance  betrayed  in  the  Writings — Establishment  of 
the  Mormon  Church — First  High-  Priests — Joe  Smith  Arrested 
for  Theft — Building  a  Church  in  Ohio — The  Tree  bearing  its 
First  Fruits — A  Monstrously  Lacivious  Ceremony — Subordinat- 
ing Lust  of  the  Flesh  to  Righteousness,  -  354 — 360 


14  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  III. 

EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Sidney  Rigdon's  Exhortations  —  Orson  Pratt' s  Cunning  Device — 
Gabriel's  Trumpet — Blowing  a  Blast  for  Pratt' s  Benefit — How 
Gabriel  was  Caught  in  a  Wood-Pile — "  Let  go  of  my  Horn  " — 
Joe  Smith  delivers  another  Revelation — Removal  to  Jackson 
County,  Missouri — Joe  Smith  and  Rigdon  Tarred  and  Feathered 
— Indiscretion  brings  on  a  Conflict — A  Fight — The  Cholera 
Plague — Smith  and  Rigdon  as  Bankers — Charged  with  Unlawful 
Appropriation — Sending  Missionaries  to  England — More  Fight- 
ing in  Missouri — Mormons  driven  from  the  State — Founding  of 
Nauvoo — Prosperity  of  the  Church  in  1840,  -  -  361 — 367 

CHAPTER  IV. 

CHURCH  PROGRESS,    OBSCENITIES  AND  ASSASSINATIONS. 

Brigham  Young's  Success — The  Character  of  Nauvoo  Converts- —  . 
Mormon  Political  Power — Despoiling  the  Gentiles — Sealing 
Other  Men's  Wives — Establishment  of  the  Endowment  House' 
— Joe  Smith's  Peep  Hole — Bevies  of  Ladies  in  Undress — How 
Joe  made  his  Selections — Adam  and  Eve  in  extreme  Literalness 
— How  the  other  Priests  Thirsted  and  Yearned — Why  Women 
were  Compelled  to  have  more  than  One  Husband — A  System  of 
Concubinage — Quotations  from  the  Book  of  Mormon — Joe 
Smith  a  Candidate  for  President — Outrages  and  Assassination — 
Smith's  efforts  to  Seal  to  Himself  a  Member's  wife — Military 
Uprising — Opposing  Lawful  Authority — Arrest  of  Joe  Smith — 
Assassination  of  Joe  and  Hyrum  Smith  by  a  Mob — Dreadful 
Excitement,  -  -  367—382 

CHAPTER  V. 

BITTER  FIGHTING  AND  CHURCH   DISSENSIONS. 

Trouble  Concerning  the  Succession — Birth  of  David  Hyrum  Smith — 
Candidates  for  the  Presidency — Brigham  Young  Chosen — Re- 
newal of  Hostilities — Danger  on  the  Highway — Burning  of  Mor- 
mon Dwellings — Searching  out  a  New  Place  for  Zion — Hegira 
of  the  Mormons — A  March  scarcely  Equalled  in  History — Pre- 
cipitate Flight  causes  Indescribable  Sufferings  —  Going  into 
Camp  to  escape  Freezing — Brigham  Young's  Visit  to  Jordan 
Valley — Driving  New  Stakes — Decimation  of  the  Morm  on 
Ranks  by  Death  and  Apostasy — Subsisting  on  Wolves  and  Rab 
bits — Returning  Prosperity — Destruction  of  the  Nauvoo  Temple 
by  Fire,  -  -  -  382—390 


CONTENTS.  15 

CHAPTER  VI. 

FOUNDING  OF  SALT  LAKE  CITY— MOUNTAIN   MEADOWS  MASSACRE. 

Planting  the  Stakes  of  Zion  in  Jordan's  Valley — Progress  of  the 
Church  —  Arrogance  again  following  Prosperity  • —  Brigham 
Young's  Bad  Counsels — The  Church  in  Conflict  with  the  Gov- 
ernment— An  Armed  Mob  compels  a  Federal  Judge  to  Abdicate 
— War  Declared — The  Murderous  Danites — Highways  Gorged 
with  Murdered  Emigrants — Mountain  Meadows  Massacre — The 
Most  Horrible  Crime  ever  recorded  in  American  History — One 
Hundred  and  Thirty  unarmed  Men,  Women  and  Children  shot 
down — Nemesis  on  the  Trail — Blood  Crying  from  the  Ground,  390 — 406 

CHAPTER  VII. 

MORMON   INDUSTRY  AND  THE  NEW  REVELATION. 

Conviction  and  Execution  of  John  D.  Lee — Marvellous  Industry  of  the 
Mormons — Rising  Phoenix  like  from  their  Ruins — Extracting 
Prosperity  from  Adversity — Wonderful  Success  in  the  Jordan 
Desert — Their  Great  Buildings — How  they  were  built  and  at 
what  Cost — Environing  the  Institutions  with  Strong  Walls — An 
$8,000,000  Temple — Brigham  Young  Revises  the  Church  Creed 
— How  Polygamy  was  made  an  Ordinance — Plundering  Joe 
Smith's  Cupboard — A  Summary  of  the  Revelation  concerning 
Plural  Marriages — Reception  of  the  New  Law — Changing  the 
Endowment  Ceremonies — Hiding  Nakedness  with  something 
more  than  Fig-leaves,  -  407 — 415 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

ENDOWMENT  HOUSE  CEREMONIES. 

A  Young  Girl's  Interesting  Story — How  she  was  Induced  to  Leave 
England  and  Marry  a  Mormon — Her  Husband  Espouses  Three 
Wives  in  One  Day — A  Domestic  Rebellion — Refusing  to  occupy 
a  Marital  Bed — Outraging  his  own  Wife — Going  through  the 
Endowment  Ceremonies — Sending  her  Husband  to  the  Peniten- 
tiary— Adam  and  Eve — How  the  Devil  got  in  his  Work — A  De- 
nominational Symposium — Selecting  a  name  for  Judgment  Day 
— Terrible  Oaths — Secret  Grips'  of  Mormonism — A  Wife's  Per- 
petual Subserviency  to  her  Husband  —  The  Gate-way  to 
*  Heaven,  -  -  415—438 

CHAPTER  IX. 

PROMISCUOUS  POLYGAMY — HORRIBLE  SENSUALITY  AND   BLOOD- ATONEMENT. 

How  Brigham  Young  enjoyed  Polygamy — Making  Joe  Smith  Re- 
sponsible for  it — Endowment  House  Oaths — Woman's  Subjec- 


16  CONTENTS. 

tion — Living  by  Husbands'  Permission — How  Wives  are  forced 
to  accept  Polygamy — Schisms  in  the  Church — Dreadful  Sensu- 
ality— Wives  at  Twelve  Years  of  Age — Fathers  Bartering  their 
Daughters — Marrying  all  the  Female  Members  of  a  Family — 
Taking  Sisters  to  Wife — Abraham  and  Lot's  Examples — Excess 
Produces  Disgust — Doctrinal  Teachings  on  Polygamy — What 
Women  must  do  to  be  Saved — How  Women  are  Degraded — 
Universal  Suffrage  for  Mormon  Wives — What  it  Means — 
The  Law  against  Bigamy  a  Dead  Letter — How  Women  are 
Blood- Atoned — Murder  for  Apostasy  Justified  by  the  Church,  438 — 447 

CHAPTER  X. 

BLOOD-ATONEMENT — TWO    HORRIBLE  INSTANCES. 

Brigham  Young's  Cohesive  Forces — A  Woman  who  Divulged  En- 
dowment House  Secrets — Her  Execution  in  the  City  Hall — 
Tongue  Cut  Out,  Throat  Cut,  Body  Disembowled  and  Dismem- 
bered— Another  Story  even  More  Revolting — Sufferings  of  a 
Fond  Wife  and  Mother — To  save  her  Sons  she  tells  them  Mor- 
mon Secrets — Her  Husband  a  Prosecuting  Witness — Taken  into 
the  Dark  Pit— All  Night  in  a  Cellar  Praying— Convicted  and 
Sentenced  to  Death — The  Ceremony  of  Blood  Atonement — 
Stripped  and  Bound  to  a  Table — Her  Tongue  Torn  Out — Rip- 
ped up  while  yet  Alive — Her  Body  Subjected  to  Horrible  Muti- 
lation— Her  two  Sons  made  Witnesses  to  the  Cruel  Deed — Tell- 
ing the  Story — A  Lady  who  will  Testify  to  the  Facts — The  Boys 
Murdered  by  Danites,  -  -  447 — 458 

CHAPTER  XI. 

WHY  WOMEN  BECOME  MORMONS — PITIABLE  STORIES  OF  THOSE  IN  POLYGAMY. 

Psychological  Peculiarities  of  Women — Their  Religious  Fanaticism 
— Enduring  all  Suffering  for  the  Faith — Mormonism  the  Religion 
of  the  Patriarchs — Mrs.  Hunt's  Experience  in  Polygamy — A 
Story  of  Miracles  and  Suffering — Outraging  a  Noble  Wife — 
From  an  Eden  of  Love  to  a  Hades  of  Misery — Taking  the  Sec- 
ond Wife — Persecution  of  the  First  Wife — Determined  upon 
Suicide — Swallowing  Laudanum — A  Cry  for  Help — Saved  by 
Inspiration — A  Horrible  Picture — Marrying  a  Second  Wife  while 
the  first  was  in  Confinement — Indescribable  Sufferings,  -  459 — 471 

CHAPTER  XII. 

SUMPTUOUS  CHURCH   OFFICERS  AND  POVERTY-STRICKEN  MEMBERS. 

How  Joe  Smith  killed  two  Birds  with  one  Stone — Spiritual  Comfort 
for  Lay  Members,  and  Wealth  for  the  Dignitaries — Missionaries 
Preaching  Without  Pay — Brigham  Young's  Vast  Possessions—" 


CONTENTS.  17 

Mt.  Zion's  Co-operative  Institution — The  Presidential  Palace — 
Cutting  Amelia — How  President  Taylor  furnished  the  Mansion 
— A  Departure  in  Church  Government — Marrying  a  Widow  for 
$750,000 — Poverty  among  Lay  Mormons — Living  Like  Hogs — 
Father,  Wives,  and  Children  in  a  Pot  Pourri — Breeding  Lasciv- 
iousness  and  Incest — Incestious  Marriages — Instances  in  Point 
— Rapid  Increase  of  Mormonisrn — Overrunning  the  Nation — A 
Delusion  Dispelled — An  Interview  with  Joe  Smith,  Jr., — Mor- 
mon Churches  in  all  Large  Cities — Extending  to  other  Terri- 
tories, -  -  471—481 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

MORMON  CLAIMS  TO  CHASTITY  CONSIDERED. 

An  Oft-Repeated  Mormon  Claim  to  Chastity — Cannon's  Assertions 
— Dr.  Newman's  Debate  with  Orson  Pratt — Why  the  Christian 
Divine  was  Vanquished — The  Mormons  a  Sensual  People — 
Among  their  Lewd  Women — A  Technical  Disclaimer — Nature 
the  Same  in  all  Communities — An  Old  Mormon's  Opinion  of 
Polygamy — His  Discourse  and  Frank  Admission — A  Conversa- 
tion with  Joe  Smith  and  a  Missionary — Another  Opinion — 
Youthful  Vigor  vs.  Aged  Impotency — The  Sum  Total  of  all 
Polygamists'  Arguments — Terse  Answers  to  Specious  Claims 
and  Revelations —  Why  the  State  of  Deseret  does  not  Exist — 
Congress  is  amenable  for  Polygamy — How  Convictions  might  be 
secured  underthe  Poland  Law — Confessions  of  Polygamists — An 
Uprising  against  the  Saints — How  they  are  Conducting  a  Counter 
Agitation — Sending  Beautiful  Lobbyists  and  Bags  of  Money  to 
Washington  City — Will  Columbia's  Escutcheon  be  Cleansed  of 
this  Polygamous  Stain  ?  -  482 — 49$ 


NEW    ORLEANS— NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

COLORED  LIFE  IN  ITS  HAPPIEST  PHASE. 

Old  Times  in  the  South — New  Orleans  the  Negro's  Paradise — Revi- 
val Meetings — Religious  Fervor — Description  of  a  Shouting  Ser- 
vice— The  Congregation — Their  Make-up  and  Character — The 
Old  Preacher's  Text  from  Isaiah — Peeling  the  Ethiopians — The 
Minister's  Prayer — A  Remarkable  Sermon — Getting  under  the 
Hide  of  Sinners — Original  Ideas  concerning  the  White  and  Black 
Man — Making  Niggers  in  the  Dark  of  the  Moon — Revival  Song 

2 


18  CONTENTS. 

— Exhorting  Sinners  to  Repentance — The  Golden  Chariot  Com- 
ing— Look  out  for  an  Explosion — Women  in  the  Pulpit — The 
Author  overwhelmed  with  Fat  Wenches  and  Perspiration — Dis- 
missal— Levity  and  Plantation  Melodies,  -  497 — 509 

CHAPTER  II. 

OLD  MEMORIES  AND  NEGRO  HOE-DOWNS. 

Life  in  New  Orleans  before  the  War — Plantations  and  Plenty — 
Dreaming  of  Old  Times — Racing  on  the  Mississippi — Big  Balls 
and  the  Pretty  Girls  that  Attended — Southern  Types  of  Beauty 
— Memories  clustering  about  the  St.  Charles  Hotel — Famous 
Negro  Songs— The  Old  French  Market— A  White  Man's  Dance 
— How  the  Negroes  Enjoy  a  Frolic — Description  of  a  Negro 
Ball-room  in  Prose  and  Poetry,  -  510—516 

CHAPTER  III. 

NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS — VOUDOUISM. 

The  General  Prevalence  of  Superstition — All  Peoples  Believers  in 
Occult  Forces — Religion  among  the  Barbarous  Tribes — The 
Ground- work  of  Supernaturalism — Effects  of  Climate  and  Asso- 
ciation— Ceremonies  Transfused  into  the  Race -by  Kidnapped 
Africans — Description  ot  a  Voudou  Celebration — Skeletons, 
Snakes  and  the  Devil — Wounderfully  Weird,  Ghostly  and 
Demon-spectral  Orgies,  -  516 — 530 

CHAPTER  IV. 

VOUDOUISM   CONTINUED.    • 

The  Views  of  a  Correspondent  on  Voudouism — What  he  Found  but 
Failed  to  Elaborate  by  Thorough  Investigation — Congo  Songs 
and  Amulets — Explorations  by  the  Author — The  Character  of 
Voudou  Believers — Some  Remarkable  Illustrations  of  the  Mys- 
terious Power  -Rattle-snakes  and  Mystic  Queens  -Curing  Snake- 
bites by  Incantation — A  Public  Exhibition  of  Voudou  Efficacy — 
The  Lieutenant  Governor  a  Witness — Throwing  Up  the  Devil 
in  the  Shape  of  a  Black  Mouse — Political  Uses  of  Voudouism,  -  530 — 542 

CHAPTER  V. 

AFRICAN  AND  AMERICAN  VOUDOU  WORSHIP  COMPARED. 

Analogy  of  Superstition  Practiced  by  Native  and  Imported  Africans 
— Ashantee  Sacrifices — Building  a  Royal  Palace — MixingMor- 
tar  with  the  Blood  of  Two  Hundred  Virgins — Shocking  Sacrifi- 
ces— Building  Temples  on  the  Bodies  of  Men  and  Women — Bury- 
ing Children  Alive  as  a  Fetish  to  Prevent  Invasions  from  Ene- 
mies— Placing  Criminals  in  Post-holes — Burning  Victims  in 


CONTENTS.  19 

Mandelay — Blood  Atonements  Made  in  Various  Heathen  Na- 
tions— Early  Voudouism  in  America — Human  Sacrifices  in  Flori- 
da— Negro  Worship  in  the  States  Analogious  to  that  which  ob- 
tains in  Africa — Modern  Instances — Voudou  Amulets  and  Fet- 
ishes, -  -'  543—548 

CHAPTER  VI. 

HOUSEHOLD  GODS  AND  SUPERSTITIONS. 

Imagination's  Nightmare — Warding  off  Evil  Spirits — The  Terror  In- 
spired by  a  Black  Cat — Superstitions  Imported  from  Africa  to 
all  Civilized  Countries — The  Hangman's  Rope — Voudou  Snake 
Charmers — A  Mystery  known  only  to  Black  People — Amulets 
Made  From  the  Bones  of  Dead  Men — Carrying  a  Human  Hand 
as  a  Charm — Men's  Thumbs  as  Neck  Amulets — Negro  Belief  in 
Spirits — Old  Joe's  Ghost  Story — How  His  Skin  became  Splotch- 
ed with  White — Explaining  a  Point  that  was  Confusing — The 
Witch  that  Owned  Two  Ghosts— Joe  falls  Back  on  Silas  Pills- 
berry — Can't  Reveal  Voudou  Secrets,  -  548 — 556 

CHAPTER  vn. 

DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SLAVERY  DAYS. 

Memories  of  the  Old  Times — Generous  Hearts  of  the  Negroes — Go- 
ing Back  Once  More  to  the  Old  Home — Exuberant  Spirits  of  the 
Race — Fiddle,  Banjo  and  Juber— Sunshine  in  every  Negro's 
Life — Fiddle  for  the  Old,  but  Banjo  for  the  Young — Shuffling 
Off  to  Some  Good  Tune — Possum  and  Coon  Hunting — A  Visit 
to  North  Carolina — Baked  Coon  for  Supper — How  the  Old 
Man's  Boy  became  Lame — Laughable  Termination  of  a  Coon 
Hunt — Coon,  Bear  or  Devil — How  did  yo'  like  de  cookin'  ?  -  556 — 563 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

POLITICAL  DIFFICULTIES  GROWING  OUT  OF  NEGRO  EMANCIPATION. 

The  Grim  Accidents  of  War — How  Southerners  Regarded  Their 
Slaves — Effects  of  Ft.  Sumter's  Bombardment — New  Orleans 
Crowded  with  Negroes — Jokes  Perpetrated  on  the  Levee  Crowds 
— Political  Consequences  Following  Negro  Suffrage — Consider- 
ation of  the  Condition  Under  Which  Negroes  Availed  Them- 
selves of  the  Ballot  Box — Intuition  Rather  than  Reason — Louis- 
iana's Curse — Political  Vampyres — Influencing  Negro  Voters — 
Ku-Kluxism  and  Carpetbagism — A  Reign  of  Terror — Assassin- 
ation and  Ostracism — Who  was  to  Blame? — Negroes  Improving 
Their  Opportunities — National  Pride — Application  of  a  Com- 
mon Sense  Remedy— Restoring  Peace  and  Prosperity  to  the  South 
— Re-united  Brotherhood— The  Blessings  of  God  at  Last,  -  563—571 


20  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

NEGROES     AS    POLITICIANS     AND    AGRICULTURISTS — THEIR    STRENGTH    AND 

WEAKNESSES. 

Two  Exoduses  From  the  South — Anxiety  to  Return  South  Again — 
Negro  Orators — A  La  Militaire — Cart  Load  of  Negroes  for  the 
Polls — Examples  of  Progression — The  Overpowering  Desire  for 
Amusement — Effects  of  Railroad  Building  on  the  Negro — Eat- 
ing Pie  First  and  Hominy  Afterwards — An  Affliction  Called 
"The  Stops" — Negroes  and  Jackasses  Alike  Subject  to  it — A 
Description — Negroes  Employing  White  Labor — The  Race 
Diminishing — The  Effects  of  Inter-marriage — A  Phase  for  the 
Ethnologists  to  Study,  -  572 — 580 

CHAPTER  X. 

A  DESCRIPTION  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

Some  of  the  City's  Natural  Beauties — Shell  Roads — Divisions  of  the 
City — The  Singular  Soil  on  which  the  City  is  Built — Literally  a 
Town  on  Floating  Land — Geological  Theories — Cotton  Bales 
Used  for  Foundations  to  Large  Buildings — Public  Squares,  Fine 
Statues  and  Prominent  Buildings — How  the  City's  Dead  are  Dis- 
posed of — Burials  Above  Ground — Incineration  of  Bodies — A 
Modern  Golgotha — Effects  of  the  War — Louisiana  Under  the 
Rule  of  Official  Marplots — A  Reaction  that  has  been  Prolific  of 
Good — Building  and  Success  of  the  Jetties — Rapid  Extension  of 
New  Orleans  Commerce — Her  Future  Cast  by  the  Horoscope  of 
Present  Indications,  580 — 586 

CHAPTER  XL 

SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  UNDERCURRENTS  OF  NEW  ORLEANS. 

New  Orleans  Socially  Twenty- five  Years  Ago — A  Hot-bed  of  Sen- 
suality— The  City  as  it  is  now  Socially — Effects  of  Warm  Climate 
on  WToman — Some  of  the  Streets  that  are  Notorious  for  the  Char- 
acter of  People  who  Infest  Them — High  and  Low  Places — Jack 
Tars  Among  the  Lower  Wretches — The  Creole  Population — Re- 
pulsive Women,  and  Some  Beauties  that  a  Painter's  Brush  could 
not  Flatter — Siren's  in  Face,  Form  and  Witchery — Fortune 
Telling — Visit  to  the  Creole  Quarters  — A  Strange  Adventure — 
How  the  Author  was  Bewitched  by  a  Beautiful  Creole  Girl — 
Rounding  Up  Objects  of  Interest — Stories  Doubtful,  Singular, 
Mysterious,  and  Truthful — Mardi  Gras,  -  587 — 606 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE, 

Colored  Emblematic  Title-Page,  -      FRONTISPIECE. 

New  York  City,  24 

Broadway,  near  the  Post-Office,  27 

A  Club-House  Habitue  on  the  Down  Grade,  33 

Kit  Burns'  Dog  Pit,  42 

Dance  Hall  on  Water  Street,  44 

Jolly  Tars  at  the  ''Flag  of  our  Union,"  47 

Owney  Geoghegan's  Sportmen's  Hall,            -  50 

The  Parquette  at  Harry  Hill's,  53 

Scene  in  Theo.  Allen's  Dive,  55 

Cremorne  Garden  at  Midnight,  58 

Lisping  the  First  Prayer,                   -  63 

The  Fatal  Letter,     -  66 

Will  God  Forgive  Her  ?  68 

Day  Dreaming,        -  71 

"Take  up  my  Child  to  Thee,"  76 

The  Harlot's  Voyage  of  Life,  79 

Entertaining  a  Favorite,                    -  82 

An  Importation  from  Paris,     -  86 
An  Honest  Country  Couple  discover  that  they  have  been  "  Taken  In,"         90 

The  Curse  of  Riches,  94 

Residence  of  Wm.  H.  Vanderbilt,                                    -  97 

A  Bal-Masque  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  -         loj 

The  Tempter,   -  105 

Does  He  Love  Me  ?     Is  He  True  ?        -  107 

An  Italian  Family  in  the  Five  Points  Region,  109 

Street  Musicians,      -  no 

The  Gin-Shop's  Victim,  112 

An  Irish  Wake  in  the  Lower  Quarters  of  New  York,             -  -         1 14 

"  What  Can  I  Do  ?     Where  Can  I  Go  ? "      -  1 16 

Out  of  Work,             -  H7 

What  Shall  Her  Portion  Be?                                             -  119 

Picked  Up  in  East  River,        -  -         120 

Only  Three  Poor  Children,  122 

New  York  Elevated  Railway,  -         124 

The  Tombs  Prison,       -                                                                       -  126 

Morning  in  the  Police  Court,  -         128 

The  "Outraged  Husband"  Trick,                  -  138 

A  Bowery  Beer  Garden,                            -   ,             -  -         146 

Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  151 

View  of  the  National  Capitol  from  Pennsylvania  Avenue,     -  152 

North  Front  of  the  National  Capitol,  154 

The  Female  Lobbyist  Plying  her  Seductive  Arts,  -         163 

How  Two  Dashing  M.  C.'s  Represented  their  Constituents,        -  169 

A  Queen  of  the  Lobby,  -         181 

Ex-Senator  Christiancy,  of  Michigan,            -  183 


22  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Mrs.  Lilian  Christiancy,  -        185 

Mrs.  Kate  Chase  Sprague,  186 

Ex- Senator  Conkling,  of  New  York,     -  180 

Miss  Nellie  Pollard,  alias  Burrell,  -  !9I 

Capt.   Henry  W.  Howgate,     -  -         193 

Preparing  to  Sign  the  Bill,                 -  206 

Driven  to  Desperation,  -         214 

The  Style  of  Drama  most  Popular  in  Washington,  -                                 217 

Washington  Belles  Practicing  the  Chivalrous  Art  of  Fencing,  -         219 

The  Drama  of  Adam  aavl  Eve,       -  -                                   221 

A  Private  Wine  and  Gambling  Room,  -  -        223 

Restoring  the  Natural  Color  to  a  Bruised  Eye,  225 

Topography  of  San  Francisco  Bay  and  the  Golden  Gate,   -  -         228 

First  Hotel  in  San  Francisco,                            ...  231 
Suiter's  Mill,             -                                  ....        233 

Chinese  Gold  Mining  in  California,  236 
A  Common  Scene  in  Early  Days  in  California,     ...         238 

Emigrant  Train — Gold  Hunters,  1849,  239 

San  Francisco  in  1849,                               -  241 

Post-Office,  San  Francisco,  1849,  243 

Indians  Fishing  for  Salmon  in  Sacramento  River,  -        246 

Miners  Going  Home,       -  248 

Montgomery  Street  in  1849,  -        250 

Custom  House,  San  Francisco,  1849,  252 

Dennison's  Exchange  and  the  Parker  House,  1849,  -        253 

Bull  and  Bear  Fight,         -  255 

Conveying  Casey  through  the  Streets,  -         261 

Alley  in  Chinatown,  271 

Chinese  Grocery  Store,  -                -         274 

An  Aristocratic  Opium  Den,  282 

Opium  Smoking  in  the  Lowest  Dens,  -        284 

Stage  and  Interior  of  a  Chinese  Theatre,         -  286 

Property  Room  of  a  Chinese  Theatre,    -  -         290 

Confucius,         -                                                             .  -                                 292 

Mencius,                                                      -  -         292 

Interior  of  a  Joss  House  in  San  Francisco,    -  295 

Ascertaining  the  Future  by  Divining  Sticks,  -        301 

Aristocratic  Chinese  Family,  304 

Chinese  Pupil  Reciting  His  Lesson,       -  -         305 

Exterior  View  of  Chinese  Restaurant,  307 

A  Chinese  Barber,  -         316 

Turning  the  Bridge  Ladder,  330 

A  Chinese  Funeral  in  Lone  Mountain  Cemetery,  -                -         336 

Cable  Railroad  on  Clay  Street,        -  338 

View  of  Woodward's  Garden,  San  Francisco,       -  -         339 

Seal  Rocks  near  the  Golden  Gate,  341 

Anointing  Communicants  in  the  Endowment  House,  -        369 

God  Driving  Adam  and  Eve  out  of  Eden,     -  371 

Deserted  Mormon  Cabin  at  Florence,  Nebraska,  -         388 

The  Massacre  at  Mountain  Meadows,  -                                 398 

Mrs.  Ann  Eliza  Young,  -        404 

Main  Street,  Salt  Lake  City,  408 

Mormon  Temple  at  Salt  Lake,  -        410 

Endowment  House  Ceremonies  Illustrated,  416 

Diagram  of  Endowment  House — First  Floor,        -  -        420 

The  Garment,  -  422 

Devil's  Apron,         -  -        426 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS.  23 

Men  and  Women's  Apron,  -                                 427 

Woman's  Cap  and  Moccasin,  -        427 

Man's  Cap,       -  427 

The  Ceremony  of  Blood  Atonement,     -  -                         429 

The  Robe,         -                                                  -  431 

Diagram  of  Endowment  House — Second  Floor,  -        433 

Too  Numerous  for  Comfort,  -                -                443 

Bringing  Home  a  New  Wife,  -        450 

A  Mormon  Execution  by  Blood-Atonement,  -                                 454 

Praying  for  Deliverance,          ...  .        464 

My  Children  Begging  for  Bread,      -  467 

General  View  of  Salt  Lake  City,  ...        474. 

A  Kural  Polygamous  Family,                            -  -                                 478 

President  Taylor,     -  -         488 

View  of  New  Orleans,      -  496 

In  the  Sugar-Cane  Field,         -  -        499 

"  Gelory  Hallelujah  !  "  508 

Old  French  Market,  New  Orleans,         -  -                          512 

An  Old-Fashioned  Negro  Dance,                    -  515 

The  Voudou  Meeting  in  the  Old  Brick- Yard,  -                                 -        523 

Casting  the  Serpent  into  the  Fire,  -                -                527 

The  Voudou  Dance,                                 -  -         529 

Voudous  Curing  a  Possessed  Girl  by  Exorcism,  541 

A  Voudou  Dance  in  Ashantee,  -                                         544 

The  Old  Darkey's  Last  Love,        -  559 

Testing  an  Electric  Machine,  -                -        566 

Arguing  a  Question  of  Politics,        -  568 

Going  to  the  Polls,  -                -         573 

An  Attack  of  the  "  Stops,"  576 

A  Chromo  Peddler  among  the  Negroes  of  the  South,  -         579 

Scene  in  the  French  Quarters  of  New  Orleans,  581 

A  Southern  Belle  at  a  Bal- Masque,        -  -         589 

Tack  Tars  in  a  French  Market  District  Dive,  -                591 

The  South  Pass  Jetties,           -  605 


MYSTERIES  AND  MISERIES 

OF 

AMERICA'S  GREAT  CITIES. 


NEW  YORK  CITY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  GREAT  MAELSTROM  OF  VICBo 

FIRST  in  the  category  of  American  cities  stands  that 
of  NEW  YORK  ;  first  in  size,  first  in  wealth,  and  first  in 
all  the  abominations  which  curse  humanity.  It  would  be 
unfair  to  say  that  New  York  is  exceptionally  full  of  in- 
iquity, without  adding  some  qualifying  words  in  explana- 
tion ;  but  with  a  proper  understanding  of  the  causes,  it 
can  be  said  with  all  truthfulness  that  she  is  no  less  a  great 
Metropolis  of  blighting  vice  than  the  grand  commercial 
and  monetary  mart  of  the  nation.  Being  the  largest  and 
busiest  city  on  the  continent,  she  is  naturally  alodestone, 
which  attracts  almost  irresistibly  the  moving  tide  of  men 
and  women  who,  in  their  efforts  to  improve  their  condi- 
tion, draw  on  their  fertility  of  resource,  and  thus  become 
authors  of  cunning  schemes  and  bold  adventures. 

There  is  hardly  a  woman  in  America  who  does  not 
have  some  longing  to  visit  the  nation's  Metropolis,  and 
this  feeling  is  the  consequence  of  a  marked  difference 
between  the  sexes,  viz.  :  every  man  is  more  or  less  ambi- 
tious to  possess  riches,  but  possession  with  him  is  rarely 
ever  the  goal  at  which  he  halts  for  the  enjoyment 
25 


26  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

his  accumulations  might  purchase ;  they  serve  rather  to 
quicken  his  pace  in  mad  ambition's  race  to  heap  riches  on 
riches,  like  Pelion  upon  Ossa.  Per  contra,  woman's  hap- 
piness is  in  spending  ;  her  day  dreams  and  aspirations  are 
all  linked  to  a  desire  for  multiplying  her  charms  ;  money 
has  no  value  to  her  beyond  its  purchasing  power  ;  she  can 
never  extract  pleasure  from  a  sight  of  her  treasures, 
handling  bank-bills,  or  estimating  her  resources  with  the 
view  of  investing  them  for  larger  additions.  She  is, 
therefore,  in  this  respect,  the  very  opposite  of  man,  and 
in  this  difference  her  weaknesses  are  found,  her  tempta- 
tions more  apparent. 

But  what  is  peculiar  to  life  in  New  York,  is  only  less 
peculiar  to  other  large  cities  in  degree.  I  use  the  word 
*' peculiar"  in  this  sentence  not  in  the  sense  of  "distin- 
guish," but  having  reference  to  the  phases  of  which  I 
write.  Hence,  I  repeat,  the  giddy  voluptuaries  who  find 
pleasure  in  guilty  abandon  and  corrupt  morals  are  not 
indigenous  to  New  York,  but  flourish  in  only  a  lesser  de- 
gree in  all  great  cities,  so  that  what  is  written  of  the 
Metropolis  may  also  apply,  in  a  general  sense,  to  St.  Louis, 
Chicago,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  or  any  other  populous 
municipality. 

The  first  visit  to  New  York  is  always  productive  of  a 
singular  sensation  —  a  realization  of  your  utter  inconse- 
quence in  the  world  ;  a  feeling  that  every  one  who  swells 
the  crowd  and  rush  of  Broadway  is  of  infinitely  more  im- 
portance than  yourself,  and  that  you  are  as  much  out 
of  your  sphere  as  though  some  mighty  occult  force  had 
suddenly  transported  you  to  a  strange  planet,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  which  were  rushing  wildly  about  in  their  efforts 
to  destroy  themselves  and  every  world  in  the  infinite  firma- 
ment. In  such  a  mass  of  princes  and  beggars,  natives  and 
strangers,  the  visitor  is  kept  dodging,  halting  and  shuffling 


NEW   YORK   CITY. 


'2$  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

to  avoid  the  pressing  throng,  which,  though  utterly  unob- 
serving,  he  believes  are  tickling  themselves  at  his  unsophis- 
ticated and  ludicrous  actions.  The  confusing  rattle  of 
'  busses  and  wagons  over  the  granite  pavement  in  Broadway 
almost  drowns  his  own  thoughts,  and  if  he  should  desire 
to  cross  the  street  a  thousand  misgivings  will  assail  him, 
for  although  he  sees  scores  of  men  and  women  constantly 
passing  through  the  moving  lines  of  vehicles,  it  gives 
him  little  courage  to  attempt  it  himself,  because  his  con- 
fidence has  deserted  him  the  moment  he  leaves  the  car 
that  has  brought  him  to  the  city.  It  happens,  therefore, 
not  infrequently  that  a  stranger  will  suffer  the  pressure 
of  a  hurrying  and  jostling  crowd  on  the  sidewalk  for  an 
hour  before  plucking  up  sufficient  resolution  to  attempt  a 
crossing,  and  even  when  the  effort  is  made  he  feels  like 
shutting  his  eyes  to  hide  from  sight  the  result.  If  the 
visitor  should  chance  to  be  the  custodian  of  large  funds, 
he  clutches  the  wallet  that  contains  them  with  many  doubts 
of  his  ability  to  prevent  their  disappearance  ;  he  looks  on 
every  strange  face  with  suspicion,  which  feeling  he  never 
exchanges  for  confidence  until  some  one  speaks  familiarly 
to  him,  when  his  anxiety  for  companionship  very  fre- 
quently leads  him  to  adopt  a  stranger  for  a  friend,  and 
makes  him  susceptible  to  the  sharp  practices  of  designing 
villains.  To  this  very  cause  is  due  the  fact  that  so  many 
visitors  are  robbed,  for  though  a  man  may  be  a  resident 
of  another  large  city,  and  familiar  with  the  cunning  ways 
of  confidence  men,  being  a  stranger  in  New  York  he 
loses  his  composure  and  becomes  often  a  ready  victim 
through  a  desire  to  make  acquaintance  with  some  one, 
without  requiring  or  considering  antecedents. 

What  is  true  of  men,  with  respect  to  their  gullibility, 
is  also  true  of  women,  only  the  latter  are  generally  more 
easily  beguiled  for  reasons  apparent  enough.  Thousands 


NEW  YORK  CITY.  29 

of  women  visit  New  York  every  month  in  the  year  with- 
out escorts  or  any  knowledge  of  the  city  ;  many  of  them 
are  prompted  solely  by  curiosity, —  perhaps  the  love  of 
adventure  and  to  establish  some  agreeable  acquaintance ; 
others  conceive  the  idea  that  so  large  a  city  furnishes 
abundant  means  for  innocent  enjoyment,  and  that  wealthy 
wife-seekers  are  as  plentiful  there  as  blackberries  in  har- 
vest time.  Some  go  to  New  York  to  gratify  a  longing 
ambition ;  some  in  search  of  missing  friends,  and  thou- 
sands of  beautiful  but  unfortunate  young  girls  go  there 
hoping  to  find  honorable  situations  to  support  them- 
selves, and  perhaps  sick  and  destitute  parents.  Heaven 
show  pity  for  the  latter  ! 

The  pretty  woman  who  visits  New  York  without  a 
friend  to  counsel  her,  and  without  any  knowledge  of  the 
city,  is  like  one  caught  trenching  upon  the  grounds  of 
Giant  Slay-Good.  She  may  be  full  of  resolution,  and 
coronated  with  the  jewels  of  chastity,  yet  the  psychologiz- 
ing influence  of  oppressive  lonesomeness,  the  wiles  of 
da-do  young  libertines,  or,  lastly,  the  seductive  represen- 
tations of  gaudily  robed  and  matronly  appearing  pro- 
curesses, will  surely  destroy  her  wholesome  decisions  and 
turn  her  into  the  path  that  leads  away  from  God. 

But  with  all  the  snares  laid  for  the  feet  of  young 
girls  and  beautiful  women  visiting  New  York,  they  are 
not  half  so  successful  in  entrapping  victims  as  is  the  in- 
fluence of  gold  in  accomplishing  the  spoliation  of  attrac- 
tive women  who  are  residents  of  the  Metropolis.  The 
almighty  power  of  riches  is  a  veritable  harvester  of  vir- 
tue, while  following  close  behind  wealth  is  the  deferential 
and  persuasive  gleaner  who  accomplishes  his  purposes  by 
either  effrontery,  promises  of  marriage,  his  good  looks, 
or  sugar-coated  protestations  and  love  syllables.  After 
the  reapers  and  gleaners  have  passed  through  the  fruit- 


30  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

ing  time  of  chastity,  only  wilted  straws  and  stray  buds 
remain: 

I  would  not  have  the  reader  infer  from  this  accusation 
preferred  against  New  York  society  that  there  is  no  vir- 
tue in  that  great  Metropolis.  Far  from  it ;  for,  while 
temptations  are  more  numerous  and  seductive  there,  for- 
tunately many  women  are  born  and  reared  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  such  purity  that  their  morals  cannot  be  tainted 
even  by  a  daily  observance  of  practices  which  shame  the 
name  of  woman.  Thousands  upon  thousands  of  noble 
mothers  and  daughters  are  residents  of  New  York,  who 
live  a  life  of  God-loving  charity  and  fidelity.  In  the 
above  assertions  I  have  reference  to  those  who,  from  ad- 
verse lot,  are  forced  upon  their  own  resources  and  left  to 
the  mercy  of  mankind,  a  mercy  which,  in  shame  be  it 
said,  has  no  line  of  demarkation  between  it  and  destruc- 
tion ;  a  mercy  such  as  the  Jacobin  judges  showed  for 
the  Bastile  prisoners,  whom  they  ordered  released,  well 
knowing  that  in  passing  out  of  the  gates  to  find  their 
liberty  they  would  at  once  be  impaled  upon  the  pikes  of 
the  enraged  sans  culotte. 


CHAPTER  II. 

CLERICAL  PARASITES. 

THE  social  life  of  New  York  is  so  anomalous  as  to  defy 
analyzation  ;  it  is  antipodal  in  the  abstract,  and  concretely 
indefinable.  The  rich,  as  a  rule,  are  boorish  and  uncul- 
tured, while  the  moderate  circumstanced  compose  a  ma- 
jor portion  of  the  cityNs  intelligence  and  virtue.  There 
are  more  insane  people  in  New  York  in  proportion  to  the 
population  than  can  be  found  in  any  other  city  of  Amer- 


NEW  YOKK  CITY.  31 

ica,  and  this  fact  is  a  patent  illustration  of  the  immense 
strain  to  which  its  citizens  are  subjected,  and  the  delete- 
rious effects  of  a  fast  and  pre-eminently  unnatural  life. 
The  business  men  are  harassed  by  vast  schemes  which 
occupy  their  minds  continually,  save  when  a  temporary 
surcease  is  found  in  the  various  intoxicating  pleasures 
afforded  by  wine,  women  and  cards,.  In  fact  their  ex- 
hausting occupations  make  them  more  keenly  sensitive 
and  appreciative  of  guilty  luxuries.  The  ladies,  whose 
fortune  has  given  them  the  means  for  entering  high  life, 
are  subjected  also  to  a  strain  of  powerful  tension  ;  for  the 
mandatory  edicts  of  autocratic  fashion  require  such  a 
profusion  of  observances  that  domestic  ties  are  perforce 
broken,  and  devotion  is  left  to  manifest  itself  wholly  in 
dress,  calls,  societies  or  amours. 

Love,  among  the  upper-society  classes  of  New  York, 
is  phenomenally  scarce,  save  that  love  which  fosters  van- 
ity or  enriches  prurient  sentiment  and  destroys  the  foun- 
dation upon  which  the  structure  of  £  nation  must  rest  — 
woman's  fidelity  and  love  of  home.  This  is  not  to  be 
considered  as  singular  when  the  peculiar  position  they 
occupy  is  reflected  upon.  Having  an  abundance  to  grat- 
ify their  desires,  these  society  peacocks  are  rarely  moved 
by  laudable  ambitions  ;  they  take  little  or  no  concern  in 
their  husbands'  or  fathers'  business  interests ;  they  are 
so  far  elevated  above  the  lowly,  and  their  pride  is  so  ex- 
aggerated by  circumstances,  that  charity  seldom  finds  an 
abiding  place  in  their  character.  Besides  all  this,  the 
shams, liaisons  and  obtrusive  mannerisms  practiced  with 
such  shameful  popularity  by  leaders  of  society,  afford 
sufficient  apology  for  imitation,  and  by  tacit  compact  the 
affection  runs  through  nearly  all  of  Gotham's  aristocratic 
veins,  and  becomes  a  poisonous  infection,  for  the  cure  of 
which  there  is  no  known  antidote. 


32  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

Drinking  is  even  more  popular  in  New  York  than  gam- 
bling, because  excited  nerves  require  much  feeding  to 
stay  the  atrophy  which  succeeds  at  last,  and  in  sorrow  it 
may  be  truthfully  added  that  the  wine-bibbers  are  not  all 
males.  It  is  no  uncommon  sight  to  see  a  female,  covered 
with  the  trophies  of  wealth  and  bearing  the  semblance  of 
aristocracy  in  her  rich  apparel,  drunk  om  the  streets.  Yet 
such  exhibitions  of  depravity  are  exceedingly  rare  com- 
pared with  the  dissipation  in  which  some  of  the  city's 
best  society  indulge.  There  are  female  club-houses  in 
abundance,  located  in  beau  monde  quarters  and  furnished 
with  an  elegance  and  sumptuous  splendor  commensurate 
with  the  grade  of  its  aristocratic  members,  where  a  society 
belle  may  indulge  her  beastly  propensities  without  fear 
of  intrusion.  It  is  only  after  she  becomes  a  slave  to  the 
appetite,  incapable  of  appeasing  her  raving  thirst,  that 
displays  of  her  weakness  are  seen  on  the  street  or  in 
public  bar-rooms. 

It  is  but  a  step  from  the  Circean  cup  to  more  de- 
basing practices,  and  many  a  life  is  yielded  up  to  licen- 
tiousness in  the  finest  palaces  of  boundless  affluence. 

The  rich  people  of  New  York  are  generally  of  two 
kinds :  one  being  wealthy  by  inheritance,  and  the  other 
by  the  sudden  success  of  some  speculation.  Very  few 
accumulate  fortune  by  the  slow  means  of  accretion,  as 
elsewhere,  and  fewer  still  through  the  exercise  of  purely 
professional  occupations.  A  man  may  be  the  wisest 
of  philosophers,  the  most  profound  of  metaphysicians, 
or  possessed  of  a  sublime  character  for  intelligence, 
honesty  and  perseverance,  yet  these  qualifications 
would  hardly  yield  him  a  competence,  unless  combined 
therewith  he  had  the  boldness  to  invest  himself  with 
some  daring  and  unctuous  scheme,  or  the  aesthetic 
la-de-da  affectation  that  would  secure  him  admission 


NEW   YOKK    CITY. 


A  CLUB-HOUSE  HABITUE  ON  THE  DOWN  GRADE. 


34  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

to  the  sortilegious  circle  of  society,,  to  live  in  which 
is  like  a  body  of  starving,  shipwrecked  mariners  cast- 
ing lots  to  determine  who  shall  be  the  first  sacrifice 
for  the  cannibalistic  feast, 

Society  in  New  York,  like  that  of  nearly  all  other 
cities,  has  its  connecting  links  welded  by  church  ceremo- 
nies. All  the  liaut  ton  are  denominational  members,  who 
pay  high  prices  for  their  pews,  and  treat  their  pastors 
like  Great  Britain  does  her  royal  branches,  with  princely 
stipends,  considering  the  ability  and  services  paid  for. 
Marriage,  in  this  high  life,  involves  a  display  of  cere- 
mony equal  to  the  initiation  of  a  Mormon  proselyte. 
Two  or  more  ministers  are  required  to  perfect  the  bonds, 
assisted  by  supernumeraries  enough  to  fill  the  chancel, 
where  they  patiently  wait  until  the  operatic  impressario 
engaged  for  the  occasion  opens  the  diaphanous  notes  xof 
the  bellowing  organ.  Following  this,  the  assistants  file 
and  counterfile,  scatter  natural  flowers,  and  perform  the 
duties  of  acolytes  in  holding  the  immense  trails  which, 
pending  from  gaudy  bridesmaids,  sweep  down  the  ample 
aisles. 

This  is  all  proper  enough,  perhaps,  and  is  mentioned 
only  to  illustrate  the  foibles  of  human  nature,  and  the 
cupidity  of  ministerial  speculators  in  matrimony,  for  be 
it  remembered  that  all  this  coup  de  theatre  is  made  at 
great  expense  and  a  corresponding  profit  to  the  ministers 
who  officiate  therein.  The  clerical  fees ,  or,  rather,  emolu- 
ments, for  they  depend  upon  the  charity  of  those  most 
interested,  usually  range  from  $5,000  to  $10,000;  but 
in  one  case  now  called  to  mind,  a  check  for  $25,000  was 
presented  to  the  man  of  prayers  and  sweet-smelling  am- 
brosia. 

It  is  not  alone  in  marriage  that  New  York  ministers 
appear  to  such  large  pecuniary  advantage,  for  they  are  in 


NEW   YORK   CITY.  35 

like  demand  at  fashionable  funerals,  where  they  pray  with 
such  effective  influence  that  very  often  the  compensation 
received  adds  several  thousands  to  their  bank  account,  not 
to  speak  of  the  rich  and  beautiful  widows  whom  they  are 
so  frequently  called  upon  to  console.  This  decidedly 
congenial,  not  to  say  delicious,  duty  is  the  greenest  and 
most  fragrant  spot  in  the  ministerial  pasture,  and  he 
usually  cultivates  it  with  wonderful  assiduity.  Some- 
times, however,  he  begins  the  cultivation  before  it  be- 
comes a  legitimate  pasturage,  and  if  prying  neighbors  or 
suspicious  Uriahs  arise  to  accuse  him,  there  is  always  a 
verdict  of  vindication  lying  ready  made  out — lacking 
only  the  name,  for  which  a  blank  is  generously  left — in 
the  secret  recesses  of  all  church  investigating  committees. 
If,  perchance,  the  matter  should  be  brought  into  court 
for  adjudication,  money  in  abundance  is  contributed  for 
the  defence  by  members,  male  and  female,  whose  acts 
make  them  peculiarly  sympathetic  for  their  beloved  man 
of  G-od.  (  ?)  Hence  it  is,  that,  whatever  the  amount  or 
character  of  forbidden  fruits  plucked  by  a  congregation's 
hero,  the  only  punishment  awarded  is  in  the  increased 
demands  made  upon  his  reserved  forces  by  those  anxious 
to  test  for  themselves  the  full  strength  of  his  loins. 

Before  concluding  this  branch  of  an  interesting  subject, 
merely  touched  upon,  lest  some  over-zealous  high  church- 
man should  become  doubtful  of  my  godly  piety,  it  is 
meet  and  comely  that  I  should  introduce  the  apology  of 
nature  for  ministerial  scandals.  Pastors  are  nearly  all 
good  men  by  birth,  and  no  less  virtuous  by  latent  in- 
clination, but  they  are,  nevertheless,  made  of  flesh, 
blood  and  sinews,  wherein  lies  their  misfortune.  They 
preside  over  a  large  circle  of  society,  maintaining  an  atti- 
tude as  peculiar  as  it  is  seductive  and  dangerous  ;  a  posi- 
tion which  invites  temptations  stronger  a  thousand  fold 


36  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

than  those  which  assailed  Peter  and  Judas.  With  large 
salaries  they  must  naturally  enjoy  brilliant  associations, 
highly  seasoned  food  and  rejuvenating  wines,  until  the 
blood  glows,  and  goes  leaping  and  dashing  in  its  mad 
ambition,  exciting  every  nerve,  and  swelling  every  vein 
and  gland  with  excessive  vitality.  In  this  condition  the 
minister,  in  pursuit  of  his  duties,  is  compelled  to  receive 
a  confiding  congregation,  male  and  female,  singly  and  in 
coteries  ;  beautiful  women,  who  have  feasted  on  the  same 
rich  viands,  which  draw  Promethean  flames  that,  in 
consuming,  leave  coals  of  fiercest  fire  that  only 
love's  consummation  can  assuage.  In  this  forbidden  and 
yet  natural  frame  of  feeling,  the  confidential  relations  of 
sheep  and  shepherd  become  sacredly  peculiar,  which  is 
not  at  all  surprising  when  the  historical  fact  is  considered 
that  even  the  wisest  man  since  the  deluge  could  not  for- 
bear a  guilty  indulgence  which  his  holy  father  practiced 
before  him. 

Who  then  shall  throw  the  first  stone  or  say  that  nature 
shall  be  placed  in  a  restraint  not  contemplated  by  crea- 
tion's alchemist,  or  forbidden  by  patriarchal  example? 
It  is  deplorable  that  such  things  are  obtruded  upon  the 
sacred  offices  of  devout  prelates,  and  though  they  be  the 
product  of  false,  yet  permissible  doctrines,  the  world 
must  ever  regard  them  as  sensuous  crimes  which  are 
surely  disintegrating  the  strong  pillars  of  religion .  Money 
and  piety  are  as  oil  and  water,  sin  and  holiness,  black 
and  white.  The  sage  of  ages  has  declared  it,  and  two 
scores  of  centuries  have  furnished  no  example  that  does 
not  confirm  it. 

The  salaries  and  emoluments  received  by  the  ministers 
of  fashionable  congregations  in  New  York  City  are  almost 
princely,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following : 

Dr.  Dix,  the  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  receives  a  yearly 


NEW   YORK   CITY.  37 

tsalary  of  $12,000,  while  his  rents  aggregate  $4,000  more. 
His  charge  is  considered  as  being  the  most  aristocratic  in 
the  great  Metropolis. 

Dr.  Morgan  is  in  receipt  of  an  $8,000  salary,  but  he  be- 
came heir  to  a  very  large  estate  through  the  death  of  his 
father,  who  was  a  rich  merchant  of  Hartford,  Conn. 
His  earliest  success  was  largely  due  to  the  influence  of 
Rector  Berrian,  into  whose  family  he  was  to  have  mar- 
ried, but  was  prevented  by  the  early  death  of  his  affianced 
wife.  Neither  of  these  two  ministers  is  eloquent  or 
learned  ;  they  have  risen  to  their  present  positions  entirely 
through  the  wealth  they  have  commanded.  Their  sala- 
ries are  a  mere  bagatelle  compared  with  the  gifts  they  re- 
ceive from  their  congregations. 

Roderick  Terry  is  the  youngest  minister  in  New  York, 
but  being  a  son  of  John  T.  Terry,  of  the  millionaire  firm 
of  E.  D.  Morgan  &  Co.,  he  has  been  called  to  the  pastor- 
ate of  the  South  Reformed  Church,  at  a  salary  of  $5,000. 

Rev.  Dr.  Hall,  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church,  is  said  to  receive  a  salary  of  $20,000,  in  addition 
to  which  his  marriage  and  funeral  fees  foot  up  a  large 
sum.  His  congregation  is  not  large,  but  almost  every 
pew  in  his  church  is  occupied  by  a  millionaire.  His  par- 
ishioners have  furnished  him  with  a  magnificent  parson- 
age. He  goes  to  Europe  almost  every  year  and  has  all 
his  expenses  paid.  In  the  latter  part  of  last  year  (1881), 
he  inherited  a  large  legacy,  and  may  now  be  classed 
among  the  richest  men  of  the  city. 

Dr.  Newman,  formerly  of  Washington  City,  has  been 
recently  called  to  the  pastorate  of  Madison  Avenue  Con- 
gregational Church,  at  a  salary  of  $6,000.  Among  the 
members  of  this  temple  of  God  and  Mammon  are  Gen. 
Grant,  Jay  Gould,  Russell  Sage,  and  other  chief  sinners 
who  need  saving  grace  and  are  able  to  pay  for  it. 


38  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

Dr.  Talmage,  of  Brooklyn,  draws  a  salary  of  $12,000 
a  year,  but  his  income  reaches  about  $20,000,  receiving, 
as  he  does,  from  $100  to  $200  a  night  while  on  a  lectur- 
ing tour.  He  is  thoroughly  domesticated,  and,  it  is  said, 
lives  within  his  means. 

Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  is  in  receipt  of  an  annual 
salary  of  $25,000,  and  charges  from  $200  to  $250  for 
each  of  his  lectures.  Notwithstanding  he  is  compara- 
tively well  to  do,  he  very  rarely  gives  his  services  free. 
In  addition  to  this,  he  makes  a  good  deal  of  money  from 
his  literary  pursuits. 

Rev.  Dr.  Justin  D.  Fulton,  who  preaches  at  the  old 
rink  in  Brooklyn,  gets  $3,000  a  year  and  his  emoluments 
are  quite  large.  He  has  the  reputation,  however,  of  be- 
ing a  ready  spender,  and  rarely  has  a  balance  on  the 
credit  side  of  his  account. 

Dr.  Deems,  of  the  Church  of  the  Strangers,. has  a  good 
living,  and  cannot  be  removed  from  his  pastorate,  the 
church  having  been  permanently  endowed  by  the  Vander- 
bilt  family.  Besides,  at  the  death  of  the  commodore,  he 
inherited  $50,000.  Dr.  Deems  leads  a  quiet,  retired  life, 
and  is  looked  upon  as  a  comparatively  rich  man. 

*Dr.  Bellows  has  a  rich  congregation.  He  is  regarded 
as  an  eloquent  divine.  His  income,  derived  from  numer- 
ous sources,  is  set  down  at  between  $30,000  and  $40,000 
a  year.  A  few  years  ago  one  of  his  parishioners  be* 
queathed  him  a  large  legacy,  the  specific  amount  of  whicl 
cannot  be  ascertained. 

Dr.  Ormiston's  church  on  Fifth  avenue,  is  also  attended 
by  some  of  New  York's  wealthiest  citizens.  His  salarjr 
is  $10,000  a  year,  in  addition  to  large  annual  gifts  from. 
his  congregation. 

Dr.  Thomas  Armitage,  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist 
Church,  receives  a  salary  of  $10,000  a  year.  He  makes 

*Dr.  Bellows  died  on  the  3ist  of  January,  1882. 


NEW  YORK  CITY.  39 

annual  trips  to  Europe,  where  he  spends  a  great  portion 
of  his  time.  He  is  highly  esteemed  by  his  congregation, 
and  is  yearly  made  the  recipient  of  munificent  gifts, 
which  range  up  in  the  thousands. 

Dr.  Storrs,  of  Brooklyn,  is  paid  $12,000  a  year.  He 
has  been  with  his  present  congregation  for  thirty-five 
years.  During  the  year  1881  he  was  presented  with 
$35,000,  or  $1,000  for  each  year  of  his  services. 

Dr.  William  Taylor,  of  the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  re- 
ceives a  salary  of  $8,000  a  year;  but  it  is  asserted  that 
this  amount  is  almost  quadrupled  by  annual  gifts,  mar- 
riage fees,  etc. 

Dr.  Elder,  of  the  Madison  Avenue  Baptist  Church,  is 
considered  one  of  the  wealthiest  ministers  in  the  city. 
For  a  long  period  he  acted  as  pastor  of  two  churches, 
and  drew  a  salary  of  $10,000  from  each  of  them,  and 
being  of  a  thrifty  disposition,  he  accumulated  much 
wealth,  which  was  augmented  by  a  number  of  large  leg- 
acies left  him  by  some  of  his  parishioners. 

Rev.  Howard  Crosby  has  inherited  large  estates.  He 
is  one  of  the  leading  law  and  order  clergymen  of  the 
city.  The  services  which  he  renders  to  the  State  are 
given  gratis,  which  philanthropy  has  been  rewarded  by 
large  bequests  on  the  part  of  the  members  of  his  congre- 
gation. 

Rev.  John  Cotton  Smith,  while  he  receives  but  $12,000 
a  year,  is  reputed  to  be  very  wealthy.  His  congregation 
is  composed  of  some  of  the  oldest  and  wealthiest  fam- 
ilies of  New  York,  whose  annual  gifts  to  their  pastor  are 
very  large. 

Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter  of  Grace  Church,  it  is  stated, 
has  a  salary  of  $10,000.  His  congregation,  though  not 
large,  are  all  wealthy,  and  frequently  give  the  reverend 
gentlemen  as  much  as  $2, 000  for  a  wedding.  Outside  of 


40  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

all  this  he  is  rich,  and  spends  six  months  of  the  year  in 
Europe. 

All  of  these  highly  fed  and  princely  paid  ministers 
have  little  to  do,  and  labor  only  when  the  disposition  in- 
vites ;  they  live  luxuriously,  support  a  retinue  of  servants, 
and  generally  deliver  their  sermons  by  reading  from 
manuscript.  Few  of  them  ever  charged  their  audience 
with  divine  sentiment  or  ever  reclaimed  a  sinner ;  they 
are  rarely  known  to  contribute  a  mite  for  charity,  and 
live  in  an  exclusiveness  of  splendor,  following  the  bent 
of  wills  surcharged  with  unrighteousness. 

But  I  would  not  have  the  reader  infer  that  there  are  no 
really  devout  Christians  among  the  ministers  and  women 
in  New  York,  for  I  rejoice  in  the  assurance  that  there  are 
not  a  few  who  are  laying  up  treasures  where  "neither 
moth  nor  rust  doth  corrupt."  God  has  not  entirely  for- 
saken New  York,  for  even  in  the  worst  by-ways  of  that 
sin-corrupted  city  he  has  placed  many  of  his  loving  fol- 
lowers where  they  pour  out  in  abundance  their  heaven- 
distilling  acts  of  virtue  and  charity  by  day  and  night. 

There  is  a  veritable  host  of  ministers  in  New  York, 
who  are  known  by  the  title  of  missionaries,  that  may  be 
found  prevailing  with  the  fallen  and  wrestling  with  sin 
in  all  its  shapes,  who  receive  for  their  hard  and  trying 
labors  salaries  ranging  from  $800  to  $1,200  yearly.  To 
them  and  the  work  of  noble  mission- wo  men  is  due  all  the 
credit  for  whatever  conversions  are  made  in  the  Metropo- 
""is,  and  yet  their  names  are  never  seen  in  print,  because — 
Jiey  are  poor ! 

When  shall  the  money-changers  in  the  Lord's  temples 
be  scourged  again? 


NEW  YORK  CITY.  41 

CHAPTER  m. 

CONCERT  HALLS  AND  BEER  GARDENS. 

WHILE  New  York  is  a  solitaire  setting  of  wealth  in  our 
wonderfully  rich  commercial  signet,  she  has  a  full  share 
of  vagabondage,  extreme  poverty,  low  dives  of  iniquity, 
and  pest  houses  of  abomination,  which  almost  shame 
mankind.  California,  in  the  worst  days  of  '49  to  '56, 
was  a  sovereign  millennium  compared  with  the  civilization 
of  such  places  as  Baxter,  Water  and  Bleecker  streets  of 
Gotham,  or  in  the  district  bounded  by  Fourteenth  and 
Twenty-second  streets  and  Fourth  and  Seventh  avenues, 
known  as  the  Twenty-ninth  Precinct.  In.  these  quarters 
the  criminals  of  every  class  find  a  rendezvous,  and  always 
meeting  congenial  associates  there,  the  place  has  become 
a  headquarters,  at  which  councils  are  held,  and  nearly  all 
the  robberies  in  New  York  planned. 

There  are  many  dangerous  places  in  the  Metropolis,  so 
dangerous  in  fact,  that  officers  of  the  law  venture  to 
penetrate  the  dark  alleys  of  the  districts  only  when  they 
have  reinforcements  in  reserve,  and  necessity  compels 
them.  Murder  and  garroting  are  crimes  of  almost  nightly 
occurrence,  but  as  the  perpetrators  have  ample  hiding 
places  for  dead  bodies  conveniently  near,  the  victims  of 
slung-shot,  sand-bag  and  knife  are  rarely  found. 

Friends  of  missing  men  compose  a  considerable  class 
of  New  York  visitors  ;  they  report  the  disappearance  of 
those  for  whom  they  are  in  search  to  the  police,  having 
traced  the  missing  ones  to  New  York,  but  it  is  only  on  rare 
occasions  that  the  search  proves  successful,  however  vig- 
orously prosecuted  by  officers  and  friends.  If  the  victim 
perishes  from  the  blow  of  a  sand-bag,  his  body  is  carried 
to  some  street  several  squares  from  the  spot  where  the 


42 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


murderous  act  was  committed,  and  there  subjected  to  a 
scrutinizing  search  for  valuables  ;  the  body  is  also  strip- 
ped, especially  if  it  should  be  well  clothed,  and  the 
raiment  thus  secured  is  sold  to  a  second-hand  clothing 
dealer,  who  manifests  no  anxiety  to  know  from  whence 
the  articles  come  or  who  his  patrons  are.  These  gar- 
ments are  carefully  cleaned  and  repaired,  and  if  they 
have  any  peculiar  color  or  characteristics  of  style 


KIT  BURNS'  DOG-PIT  (now  extinct). 

they  are  dyed  or  altered,  so  as  to  prevent  detection, 
and  then  displayed  for  sale.  After  the  body  is  strip- 
ped it  is  then  carted  off  again,  and,  should  cries 
have  escaped  the  victim's  lips  when  the  murderers  were 
upon  him,  in  order  that  suspicion  may  not  be  excited 
and  pursuit  given  that  would  lead  to  the  clothing 
dealer,  the  bloody  remains  are  frequently  taken  back 
to  a  spot  not  far  removed  from  the  place  where  the 


NEW   YOKK   CITY.  43 

fatal  deed  was  perpetrated,  and  unceremoniously  dumped  ; 
for  when  it  is  found  and  brought  under  a  coroner's  inves- 
tigation ,  the  cause  of  death  is  hard  to  determine  ;  and  if 
the  body  be  that  of  a  stranger  a  verdict  of  death  from 
apoplexy  or  heart  disease  will  answer,  after  merely  view- 
ing the  features.  If  the  murder  is  accomplished  by  some 
blunt  instrument  the  victim's  remains  generally  go  to 
North  or  East  river,  for  it  may  be  easily  inferred  that  it 
was  a  case  of  suicide,  and  that  the  contusion  was  caused 
by  a  passing  harbor  steamer.  But  should  a  knife  be 
used,  the  body  is  thrown  into  the  nearest  vault  or  sewer. 
Sometimes  it  happens,  however,  that  the  victim,  whatever 
the  cause  of  his  death,  is  carted,  directly  after  tha  body 
grows  cold,  to  one  of  the  many  medical  colleges,  where 
it  becomes  a  subject  for  clinical  experiment. 

With  the  reader's  assent  we  will  now  make  a  tour  of 
the  Metropolis,  and  pay  a  special  visit  to  some  of  the 
more  noted  dives  of  this  dreadfully  wicked  city.  It 
must  be  understood  that  New  York  of  to-day  is  very 
different  from  Gotham  of  ten  years  ago.  The  notorious 
Five  Points  has  become  a  quiet  and  almost  respectable 
vicinity,  its  worst  features  being  found  in  the  poverty  of 
its  dwellers,  who  are  almost  exclusively  Italian.  The 
persistent  labors  of  many  zealous  Christian  missionaries 
have  established  the  emblems  of  universal  love  and 
brotherhood  in  scores  of  places,  which  were  only  a  few 
years  ago  distinguished  throughout  the  English  speaking 
world  for  revolting  crimes  and  savage  ribaldiy. 

Let  us  first  take  a  stroll  through  Water  street,  which 
was  less  than  five  years  since  a  very  cess-pool  of  iniquity. 
There  was  not  one  respectable  family  resident  along  its 
entire  length,  and  the  jolly  marines  who  rendezvoused  in 
its  thousand  purlieus  made  day  and  night  alike  hideous. 
Fights  and  murders  were  so  frequent  as  to  excite  scarcely 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


a  passing  interest ;  and  the  women,  who  warmed  into  ex- 
citement these  pursuivants  of  the  sheet  and  anchor,  were 
so  repulsive  in  their  exceeding  degradation  as  would  al- 
most make  a  gentleman  heave  his  heels  to  look  on  them. 


We  will  not  be  witnesses  of  these  atrocious  and  rheumy 
•sights  now,  however,  for  the  lowly  followers  of  Him  whose 
Hrth  and  inheritance  was  poverty, have  been  there  before 
us  and  left  the  seal  of  law  and  righteousness. 


NEW   YOEK    CITY.  45 

We  can  view  the  house  which  for  so  long  was  knowu 
afe  "  Kit  Burns'  Sportsmen's  Hall,"  located  at  No.  273 
Water  street.  This  place  was  once  an  eating  cancer  on 
the  body  municipal,  and  within  its  crime  begrimed  walls 
have  been  enacted  so  many  villainies,  that  the  world  has 
wondered  why  the  wrath  of  vengeance  did  not  consume 
it.  But  with  all  its  festering  and  mephitic  odors  and 
criminalities,  together  with  its  votaries  of  Jezebel  and 
Nana  Sahib,  the  proprietor  prospered  and  waxed  rich. 
His  rat  and  dog  pits  were  known  far  and  wide,  and  no- 
where could  the  molochs  and  thugs  find  such  delectable 
divertisement  as  Burns'  pits  afforded. 

Let  the  praise  be  given  bountifully  to  the  noble  men 
and  women  whose  exalted  services  have  sanctified  this 
evil  spot  and  turned  it  into  a  Mission  which  is  one  of  the 
most  successful  now  in  New  York.  Instead  of  the  ob- 
scenities and  debauchery  which  distinguished  Burns'  Hall 
for  so  many  years,  we  now  hear  anthems  of  praise  swell- 
ing up  from  hundreds  of  little  throats,  and  the  voice  of 
godliness  proclaims  from  a  sanctuary  the  grace  of  Him 
who  works  mysteriously  but  always  with  charity. 

Of  the  large  number  of  concert  saloons  and  maisons  de 
joie  which  once  lined  Water  street,  only  two  remain  as 
reminders  of  the  past  and  its  gross  iniquities.  There  is 
one  kept  by  a  faded  old  slattern  at  No.  337^,  which  we 
will  enter  for  a  moment's  observation.  The  deserted  ap- 
pearance is  marked  as  we  step  upon  the  threshold,  though 
our  reception  has  some  elements  of  warmth  in  it.  There 
is  a  bevy  of  eight  highly  painted  and  seasoned  girls,  in  a 
theatrical  make-up  of  tights  and  tonsorial  stockings,  reel- 
ing through  a  mechanical  dance,  as  badly  lacking  grace  as 
the  fiddle,  bass-viol  and  harp,  attuned  by  three  wild  look- 
ing gin-guzzlers  in  a  raised  corner,  are  of  harmony.  As 
we  advance  toward  the  bar  in  the  rear  way,  many  flatter- 


46  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

ing  remarks  are  passed  upon  us  by  the  besotted  females, 
which  give  unmistakable  expectation  that  we  have  come 
either  to  treat,  or  on  more  reprehensible  business ;  our 
appearance,  however,  is  too  respectable  to  suggest  the  lat- 
ter, so  we  "  stand  treat,"  and  shy  off  to  avoid  the  ca- 
resses which  are -proffered,  after  which,  learning  from  the 
madame  that  business  is  distressingly  dull  since  the  mis- 
sions were  established,  we  take  our  departure. 

Going  north  two  squares  we  turn  on  James  street,  and 
passing  through  a  file  of  wretched  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren, one  half  drunk  and  the  other  half  crazy,  we  will  stop 
at  No.  96  and  take  a  peep  at  the  interior  of  another  con- 
cert hall  very  unlike  the  one  just  visited.  There  is  a  fu- 
rious noise  inside,  made  by  clanging,  cymbals,  explosions 
from  a  bass-drum,  and  the  tooting  of  horns.  A  combined 
smell  of  garlic,  pretzels,  bologna  and  Limburger  leaves 
no  possible  room  for  doubt  respecting  nationality  and 
patrons,  though  suspended  from  a  rope,  which  encircles 
the  room,  is  a  display  of  national  bunting  comprehen- 
sively cosmopolitan. 

Though  many  of  the  surroundings  are  eminently  Teu- 
tonic, yet  a  glance  suffices  to  show  that  the  gay  revellers 
may  claim  a  varied  nativity.  Sailors,  however,  predom- 
inate, and  we  cannot  suppress  a  generous  smile  while 
watching  the  mazy  varsouviennes,  rigadoons,  waltzes  and 
the  saturnalia  and  wassail.  There  are  more  than  a  score 
of  brightly  dressed  bawds,  each  giving  a  cunning  display 
of  bust  and  limbs  while  whirling  through  the  room  in 
lascivious  suggestiveness.  The  male  participants,  in  par- 
tial intoxication,  exhibit  no  sensitiveness,  and  every  girl 
who  has  a  partner  regards  whatever  charms  she  may  pos- 
sess as  legitimate  property  for  critical  and  prying  inspec- 
tion, showing  as  little  sense  of  modesty  as  a  gelding. 
This  hall  bears  the  patriotic  title,  "Flag  of  our  Union," 


K~EW   YORK    CITY. 


47 


and  the  display  of   variegated  gonfalon  makes  the  name 
peculiarly  appropriate. 

In  order  to  depart  without  exciting  undue  attention  or 
insult  we  must  minister  to  the  remorseless  cravings  of  the 
girls  who  have  infested  us  since  our  entrance;  this  is 
best  accomplished  by  calling  for  two  dollars'  worth  of 
stale  beer,  or  ten  wine-glasses  full  of  that  demoralizing 


JOLLY  TARS  AT    "  THE  FLAG  OF  OUR  UNION." 

liquid  at  the  very  reasonable  rate  of  twenty  cents  each. 
This  acts  like  a  ticket  of  honorable  exit,  and  leaving 
the  place,  which  has  a  thousand  prototypes,  we  stray 
around  to  Chatham  Square,  and  drop  into  the  Sultan 
Divan.  There  are  some  attractive  features  in  this  con- 
cert resort  and  beer  garden,  for  its  domiciliaries  are  rather 


48  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

handsome,  and  are  arrayed  in  silk  crinoline  cut  decid- 
edly decollette,  with  skirts  to  match.  Immediately  be- 
neath a  pretty  corset,  half  revealing,  may  be  seen  enough 
to  excite  a  wish  for  larger  audience,  but  the  girls  affect  a 
coyness  that  assimilates  surprisingly  well  with  their  busi- 
ness, which  is  illustrated  by  the  anxiety  a  stranger  almost 
invariably  manifests.  These  girls  can  serve  you  with 
wine  or  beer  in  a  manner  a  novitiate  would  declare  per- 
fectly divine  ;  at  the  same  time  they  appear  so  young  and 
innocent,  with  just  a  perceptible  disposition  to  venture 
within  speaking  distance  of  impropriety  1  Sometimes 
they  may  be  prevailed  upon  to  sing  a  song — a  nice, 
e very-day,  warranted  to  wash  kind  of  a  ditty,  that  may 
have  a  very  indistinct  insinuation,  which  leads  a  dull 
fellow  to  think,  how  decidedly  clever  she  is  ! 

The  waiters  at  the  Divan  are  peculiar  in  one  respect,  to 
thoroughly  appreciate  which  it  is  necessary  to  try  the  ex- 
periment. A  good-looking,  charming  young  man,  with 
plenty  of  money  and  allective  graces,  ^s  privileged  to 
indulge  in  any  conversation  he  may  desire  with  any  of 
these  girls  ;  may,  indeed,  make  assignations,  to  which 
request  an  appointment  is  readily  granted.  When  the 
proceedings  have  gone  thus  far  the  young  man  will  always 
spend  a  goodly  sum  for  wine  or  other  drinks,  passing  the 
waiting  time  thus  in  patronizing  the  bar  ;  for  remember, 
none  of  these  girls  can  leave  their  places  until  after  mid- 
night. When  the  wished-for  hour  arrives,  the  young 
man  is  told  to  go  outside  and  abide  the  coming  of  his 
selected  companion.  He  obeys  with  alacrity,  and  stands 
there,  too,  until  he  realizes  his  deception  and  that  he  has 
been  badly  sold.  The  girl,  however,  has  made  a  hand- 
some profit  on  the  drinks  she  has  sold  him,  for  all  bar- 
maids receive  a  commission  of  twenty  per  cent,  on  their 
sales.  This  cunning  scheme  is  one  that  the  Sultan  Divan 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  49 

girls  have  practiced  since  the  place  was  established,  and 
they  have  long  since  found  that  it  pays  much  better  than 
criminal  receptivity. 

Not  far  from  the  Divan  is  the  Atlantic  Garden,  the 
largest  place  of  the  kind  in  New  York.  Its  specialty  is 
a  band  of  female  minstrels,  all  of  whom  dress  with  most 
captivating  taste  and  play  their  silver  instruments  with 
real  excellence.  The  proprietor  of  this  enterprise  came 
to  New  York  several  years  ago  sans  money,  credit  and 
everything.  He  began  life  in  America  as  a  beer  slinger 
and  gradually  worked  up  until  he  established  the  Garden 
which  has  yielded  him  such  large  revenue  that  he  is  now 
one  of  the  Metropolitan  millionaires.  The  place  is  quite 
orderly  and  is  entirely  free  from  all  the  naughtiness 
usually  indulged  in  at  beer  gardens. 

From  Chatham  Square  our  steps  will  turn  into  the 
Bowery,  when  it  will  be  only  proper,  if  we  really  desire  to 
see  the  sights,  to  visit  Owney  Geoghegan' s  establishment, 
which  is  a  sporting  hall  in  some  respects  a  prototype  of 
Kit  Burns',  except  an  absence  of  rat  and  dog  pits.  Geo- 
ghegan's  saloon  occupies  a  two-story  building  and  on  each 
floor  there  is  a  raised  platform  surrounded  by  stakes  and 
ropes,  making  a  prize-ring  of  twelve  feet  square.  This 
ring  is  used  for  short-haired,  fistic  artists  who  assault 
and  batter  each  other  for  the  delectation  of  an  enormous 
crowd  of  roughs  who  day  and  night  besiege  the  hall. 

We  press  ourselves  inside  and  soon  become  a  part  of 
the  swollen,  gibbering  and  intoxicated  legion  that  infest 
the  bar  and  surround  the  boxing  stage.  We  have  but  a 
few  moments  to  wait  before  two  men,  wearing  the  livery 
of  brutality  and  dark  ages,  are  seen  mounting  the 
stage,  together  with  a  fluffed-faced  manager,  who  makes 
the  following  proclamation : 

"  Gintlernen :  It  gives  mepleashure  to  introojuce  ye  to 
4 


50 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


Patrick  Ryan  and  Barney  O'Shaunessy,  two  ov  the  bist 
men  now  in  the  proof eshen.  Both  men  have  a  re-cord  as 
long  as  a  telegraf  wire  and  wid  twice  as  much  lightnin' . 


Ef  yeall  gev  the  byse  a  fair  show,  by  baan  quiot,  they'll 
throy  and  knock  the  time  out  av  ach  ither  in  a  way  I 
pledge  ye  me  wurd  will  ba  highly  amusen  ;  afther  which 
we'll  all  take  a  dhrink  ov  Ballemoyne's  bist." 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  51 

With  this  well-cheered  introductory  speech  concluded, 
the  two  professional  sluggers,  who  are  dressed  only  from 
the  waist  down,  fall  to,  in  an  apparently  vengeful  style, 
and  thrust,  slap  and  bang  each  other,  while  every  well 
delivered  blow  elicits  the  wildest  cheers  and  encouraging 
phrases  from  the  motley  audience.  In  all  such  encount- 
ers there  is  seen  a  division  of -sentiment  which  finds  dis- 
play in  epithets  and  abuse:  "That's  a  daisy;"  "See 
the  bloke  take  a  tumble;"  "Good,  Barney,  hand  him 
enuther  under  the  chin  ;"  "  Handy  Pathrick,  show  him 
how  they  brand  a  landlord  at  Balingbroke  ;"  "Hurrah, 
furst  blood  for  the  yellow  legged  chicken,"  etc.,  etc. 
At  the  same  time  there  is  so  much  yelling  and  vociferat- 
ing from  the  almost  frenzied  assemblage  that  Gehenna  is 
like  a  Quaker  meeting  in  comparison.  The  hot  and  sti- 
fling atmosphere  of  such  a  place  may  easily  be  imagined, 
which  is  altogether  better  in  imagination  than  in  expe- 
rience. The  air  is  fairly  resonant  with  hissing  fumes  of 
villainous  whiskey,  stale  beer,  flat  wines  and  decomposed 
breaths.  The  faces  around  us  are  worse  than  those  seen 
in  a  bench  show  of  pugnacious  dogs,  and  instinct  teaches 
us  to  have  a  care  for  our  nickels,  for  our  pockets  are  in  im- 
minent danger.  Up  stairs  and  down  the  same  scenes  are 
witnessed,  and  being  quite  contented  with  a  view  of  one 
section  of  this  mundane  Hades  we  will  get  out  by  the  best 
and  most  expeditious  route,  not  forgetting  to  give  thanks 
for  our  escape  from  brutal  assault. 

Not  far  from  Geoghegan's  hall,  in  the  busiest  part  of 
the  Bowery,  is  a  small  oyster  and  clam  market,  occupy- 
ing a  spot  adjoining  an  old  shanty  where  Reddy,  the 
Blacksmith,  once  held  his  court  of  thieves  and  murder- 
ers. This  little  market-place  covers  a  triangular  piece  of 
ground,  which,  strange  to  say,  is  neither  municipal  nor 
individual  property.  Those  who  use  it  are  occupants 


52  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

solely  under  squatter  rights,  but  this  title  is  of  diurnal 
duration,  like  Shakespeare's  pocketbook :  "  'Tis  mine, 
'tis  his,  and  has  been  slave  to  thousands." 

If  we  estimate  the  importance  of  our  visit  to  New  York 
by  the  outre  and  degrading  sights  we  shall  witness,  a  visit 
to  Harry  Hill's  theatre,  on  the  corner  of  Houston  and 
Crosby  streets,  must  not  be  neglected.  Therefore,  in 
pursuance  of  our  determination,  we  leave  the  Bowery  and 
climb  a  pair  of  stairs  which  have  their  ascent  from  the 
interior  of  Hill's  saloon.  At  the  moment  our  eyes  fall 
upon  Harry's  aggregation  of  song  and  minstrelsy,  pur- 
veying to  a  mixed  assemblage  of  bilks,  blokes  and 
canaille,  our  gorge  almost  rises  at  the  fumes  and  deprav- 
ity before  us. 

Harry  Hill  sees  that  we  are  strangers,  and  with  much 
courtesy  conducts  us  to  a  seat  which  commands  an  excel- 
lent view  of  the  house.  On  the  stage  is  a  double  quar- 
tette of  men  and  women,  the  former  being  in  the  dis- 
guise of  low-down  Ethiopians,  while  the  latter  are  quite 
evil  enough  appearing  without  any  aid  of  costumer  or 
diabolizing  painter.  In  fact,  the  girls  must  surely  have 
been  born  with  unnatural  homeliness,  and  grown  uglier 
every  day  of  their  lives  thereafter.  One  of  the  more 
weazened,  shattered  voiced,  debilitated  travesties  on 
women  starts  a  song  which  is  to  the  audience  a  palata- 
ble sandwich  between  the  rhodomontades  of  alleged 
negro  jokes.  Turning  our  eyes  from  the  stage,  however, 
we  will  roll  our  vision  to  the  wine  room  on  the  left,  and 
in  there  we  shall  see  something,  which  if  not  more  refin- 
ing is  at  least  less  monotonous.  There  are  several  young 
girls,  fairly  well  dressed,  apparently  extracting  comfort 
from  the  laps  in  which  they  loll,  sipping  wine  between 
obscene  conundrums,  and  laughing  immoderately  at  sug- 
gestive stories.  Modesty  forbids  that  I  should  tell  the 


NEW    YORK    CITY. 


53 


rest,  for  prying  hands  too  oft  indulge  in  dalliances  not  to 
be  described ;  but  while  refraining  from  expression  we 
do  all  the  more  thinking,  though  our  conclusions  must  be 
a  comforter  to  none  save  ourselves. 


Harry  Hill  has  acquired  a  large  fortune  exhibiting  the 
human  menagerie  of  animal  natures  which  he  manages,  and 
his  name  is  familiar  to  nearly  all  Americans.  Though  his 
patrons  belong  to  the  most  infamous  classes,  he  suffers 


54  MYSTERIES  AND  MISERIES. 

no  one  to  be  robbed  in  his  establishment.  He  was  form- 
erly a  professional  prize  fighter,  and  has  a  large  acquaint- 
ance among  the  thugs  and  thieves,  who  regard  him  with 
such  feelings  of  friendship  that  none  of  them  ever  trans- 
gress the  rules  of  his  house.  Besides  this,  Harry  is  familiar 
with  all  the  tricks  of  the  Metropolian  thieves,  and  his  eyes 
are  ever  on  the  alert.  Should  he  discover  any  attempt  at 
pocket-picking  or  swindling,  the  thief  would  suffer  a  dread- 
ful punishment  at  the  pugilist's  hands.  His  influence, 
however,  ceases  the  moment  his  patrons  leave  his  prem- 
ises, and  the  hall  is  therefore  used  for  plotting  hundreds 
of  robberies  which  occur  within  a  stone's  throw  of,  and 
upon  men  just  leaving,  the  theatre. 

Theo.  Allen's  concert  and  dance  house  is  located  in  a 
basement  on  Bleecker  street.  Allen  acquired  much  fame 
by  the  title  given  him  seveal  years  ago  when  missionary 
work  first  began  on  a  redoubtable  basis  among  the  foul 
and  impious  denizens  of  Five  Points.  He  kept  a  den 
at  No,  304  Water  street,  which  was  so  festering  with  in- 
famies that  the  full  effect  of  missionary  work  was  turned 
upon  him,  but  it  at  first  only  served  to  give  him  the  dis- 
tinguishing cognomen,  "Wickedest  man  in  New  York." 
This  name  proved  to  him  a  capital  prize  in  fortune's  lot- 
tery, for  his  place  at  once  assumed  a  popularity  never 
before  nor  since  enjoyed  by  any  saloon-keeper.  He  re- 
ceived the  mission  laborers  with  becoming  generosity, 
gave  them  liberty  to  conduct  sacred  meetings  in  his  bar- 
room, and  even  compelled  his  besotted  scarlet  women  to 
attend  the  services.  At  length  Allen  professed  repentance 
and  went  to  lecturing  publicly,  but  he  kept  the  saloon 
until  he  found  it  advantageous  to  sell  out  to  the  missions, 
when,  having  netted  more  than  $100,000,  he  cracked  his 
fingers  at  the  world  and  changed  from  low  to  high  living. 
The  result  of  this  was  approaching  poverty  in  a  few 


NEW    YORK    CITY. 


55 


years,  when  he  again  opened  a  house  of  prostitution,  and 
now  conducts  a  flourishing  business,  where  we  will  visit 

him. 

The  room  into  which  we  have  descended  is  an  evidence 


of  human  endurance  and  vitality,  for  it  is  so  pregnant 
with  noisome  vapors  that  to  those  who  study  life  theo- 
retically, —  like  the  anatomist  who  acquires  his  physiologi- 
cal knowledge  by  clinics  on  a  manikin,  —  suffocation 


56  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

would  result  after  about  fifteen  minutes'  confinement  in 
such  pestilential  and  pyaemia  producing  exhalations. 
Nevertheless,  this  inferno  is  always  crowded  after  night- 
fall with  a  bacchanalian  throng  of  debased  humanity. 
The  women,  who  are  compelled  to  live  in  such  a  poison- 
ous atmosphere  and  drink  for  the  profit  of  the  bar,  are 
like  wraiths  of  consumption  and  fever ;  their  eyes  are 
lustreless,  their  limbs  shrunken,  and  despite  the  veneer- 
ing of  high  coloring  cosmetics,  their  skin  is  harsh  and 
dead  as  parchment.  Yet  there  are  always  men,  young 
and  old,  who  find  enjoyment  in  the  private  society  of 
these  sapless  hulks  of  womanhood,  and  who  spend  their 
time  and  substance  whirling  through  mechanical  waltzes 
with  arms  thrown  tightly  around  their  almost  bloodless 
victims  of  direst  vice. 

Near  the  corner  of  Bleecker  and  South  Fifth  Avenue 
is  a  dive  still  lower  than  any  we  have  yet  visited,  and  since 
it  is  in  the  neighborhood  of  Allen's,  let  us  drop  in,  tak- 
ing the  chances  for  our  safe  exit.  This  place  has  a 
double  name  ;  some  of  its  patrons  stick  to  the  title, 
"Black  and  Tan  Concert  Hall,"  while  a  majority  insist 
that  the  founder  gave  it  the  allective  euphemism, 
*'  Chemise  and  Drawers." 

This  concert  hall  is  also  in  a  basement,  and  its  patrons 
are  chiefly  descendants  of  Ham,  or,  rather,  Americans  of 
off  color,  though  there  is  always  a  large  per  centage  of 
white  persons,  male  and  female,  mixed  promiscuously 
with  the  pungent  effluvium  of  the  room.  All  fresh  air 
being  entirely  excluded,  and  a  red  hot  stove  kept  roaring 
in  consonance  with  the  singing  and  simmering  water  pan 
on  top,  there  is  some  resemblance  noticeable  between  the 
den  and  a  Turkish  bath  sweating  room.  The  Augean 
Stables,  which  for  some  thousands  of  years  have  held 
their  reputation  unsullied  for  obnoxious  exhalations  and 


NEW    YORK    CITY.  57 

excrements,  which  only  Hercules  could  endure,  must 
lower  their  pennant  in  recognition  of  this  modern  compeer. 

But  despite  the  befouling  odors  and  associations,  we 
will  essay  an  investigation  of  this  putrescent  pot-pourri. 
Passing  along  an  ample  hallway,  in  which  the  bar-room 
is  located,  along  the  counter  of  which  is  a  closely  packed 
row  of  drinkers,  we  halt  in  the  rear,  which  expands  sud- 
denly into  a  ball-room.  Here  are  negroes  with  white 
women  for  partners,  and  white  men  in  the  arms  of  oleag- 
inous black  wenches,  all  twirling  in  the  lascivious  waltz,  to 
the  music  of  fife,  fiddle,  banjo  and  piano.  Streams  of 
highly  scented  perspiration  are  seen  tracing  down  the 
cheeks  of  the  colored  dancers  until  the  exhalations  can  al- 
most be  felt  as  well  as  smelt ;  indeed  the  spiritual  part  of  the 
occasion  rivals  a  convocation  of  excited  pole-cats,  but  the 
participants  are  unconscious  of  everything  save  the  fun 
in  hand,  and  even  our  weakened  stomachs  are  partly  for- 
gotten in  amazement  at  the  loud  sounding  osculations  of 
a  buck  negro  practicing  on  a  white  girl's  cheeks.  When 
the  dance  is  concluded  the  enraptured  couples  march  up 
to  the  bar,  and  sometimes  to  a  strictly  retired  part  of 
the  house,  but  they  generally  appear  again  and  keep  up 
their  wild  orgies  until  dawn. 

This  place  is  one  of  the  filthiest  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  and  this  very  fact  and  reputation  renders  its  pro- 
prjetor  a  most  profitable  service.  Visitors  to  Gotham 
who  seek  the  rare,  though  degrading  sights  seldom  fall 
to  call  at  the  "Chemise  and  Drawers,"  and  as  all  callers 
are  expected  to  treat  as  a  compensation  for  admittance 
the  bar  gathers  a  goodly  patronage  from  the  large  num- 
ber of  these  chance  customers. 

Before  concluding  our  tour  of  the  concert  halls  of  the 
Metropolis,  we  must  visit  one  of  the  higher  grade,  where 
our  sight  may  be  regaled,  and  the  unpleasant  effects  of 


58 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 


NEW    YORK    CITY.  59 

the  places  we    have  aleady  examined    may    be  in  part 
effaced. 

The  most  high-toned  concert  and  beer-garden  is  per- 
haps the  Cremorne,  located  on  Thirty-second  street  near 
Broadway,  though  the  Haymarket,  which  is  only  two 
blocks  below,  and  Buckingham  Palace,  on  Twenty-seventh 
street,  are  also  very  fine  places  and  have  an  enormous 
patronage. 

The  Cremorne  Garden  is  magnificently  furnished,  the 
walls  being  set  with  immense  looking-glasses,  and  heroic 
sized  statues  of  several  of  the  Grecian  gods  being  placed 
at  intervals  in  the  grand  room.  On  a  gallery,  which  tra- 
verses the  en  tire  hall-width,  half-hidden  by  a  profusion  of 
vegetation,  is  a  band  of  sixteen  pieces,  discoursing  ele- 
gant music.  There  are  seventy-five  tables  for  beer  and 
wine  services  in  the  room,  and  at  each  table  sits  a  girl 
charmingly  dressed,  who  invites  customers.  Let  us  go 
over  to  this  first  table  on  the  right,  for  I  discover  a  very 
beautiful  girl  stationed  there  all  alone.  Look  !  she  is 
beckoning  to  me  and  as  there  is  at  least  an  outward  ap- 
pearance of  her  being  a  dear  charmer  we  can  certainly 
find  some  amusement  around  that  table. 

Taking  seats — there  are  four  chairs  at  each  table — I 
call  for  some  beer,  because  it  is  cheaper  than  wine,  and 
forthwith  the  girl  raps  for  a  colored  waiter  who,  taking  a 
check  from  the  pretty  bar-maid,  disappears,  but  soon  re- 
turns with  our  order.  By  way  of  engaging  the  girl  in 
conversation  I  say  : 

"  You  seem  to  be  quite  young,  and  I  declare  you  are 
very  pretty  ;  how  long  have  you  been  here  ?  ' ' 

"•Oh,  I  only  started  in  this  business  a  week  since. 
How  old  do  you  think  I  am  ?' ' 

"About  eighteen  I  should  think  " — though  I  knew  she 
was  at  least  twenty-three. 


60  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

"  You  are  a  pretty  good  guesser,  only  missed  it  one 
year,  for  I  am  just  seventeen." 

"  Say,  my  dear  girl,  you  have  a  ravishingly  lovely 
arm,  so  perfect  in  mould,  and  skin  like  the  Georgian 
women." 

"  Do  you  really  think  so  ?  I  appreciate  the  compli- 
ment." 

"I'll  tell  you  what  to  do,  go  out  West  and  your  for- 
tune will  be  made  ;  for  a  pretty  face  never  wants  for 
admirers  in  that  section.  You  could  marry  a  millionaire 
gold-miner  or  cattle  dealer  in  fifteen  minutes  after  reach- 
ing Denver." 

"  Is  that  so  ?  I'd  like  to  go,  but  I  have  a  poor  old 
mother  here  who  needs  my  support,  and  I  can't  leave 
her." 

"Now,  my  dear,  although  I  wear  a  sombrero,  and  have 
Western  accent,  don't  try  to  play  that  poor-mother  racket 
on  me,  for  it  won't  wash  any  more  than  poke-berry  col- 
ored calico.  Say,  tell  me  where  you  live  and  if  this  is 
your  only  means  of  support,  for  I  see  you  wear  the  Fifth 
Avenue  regulation  clothes." 

"  If  you'll  buy  a  three  dollar  bottle  of  wine  and  go  with 
me  to  the  private  wine-room,  I'll  tell  you  all  you  want  to 
know  ;  the  proprietor  won't  let  us  leave  our  table  unless 
our  customers  buy  a  bottle  of  wine.  Come,  now,  won't 
you  ?" 

"  Well,  I  guess  I  won't,  not  to-night,  for  your  story 
is  like  that  of  all  other  bar-maids  ;  you've  been  too  con- 
fiding, dropped  the  casket  of  your  chastity  and  broken 
the  jewel  which  few  like  you  try  to  mend.  My  conversa- 
tion has  been  for  the  benefit  of  my  companions,  who  are 
visiting  New  York,  and  not  for  my  edification." 

It  was  thus  we  parted. 

There   are  hundreds   of  other  concert  halls   and  beer 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  61 

gardens  in  New  York,  but  those  we  have  visited,  as  de- 
scribed, are  samples  of  the  whole. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PROSTITUTION  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY. 

PROSTITUTION,  in  New  York,  is  one  of  the  sciences,  as 
well  as  the  evils,  with  which  legislation  has  had  much  to 
do  in  efforts  for  its  suppression ,  while  society  has  been 
even  more  active  in  its  extension.  It  is  a  sin  which, 
though  the  most  blighting  and  debasing,  is  so  general 
and  infectious  that  we  see  it  flaunting  its  scarlet  colors  in 
every  by-way  and  aristocratic  walk  of  our  Metropolis. 
An  evil  that  subsists  solely  by  reason  of  the  gain  it  se- 
cures or  the  lust  it  satiates,  must  thrive  where  society 
recognizes  its  prevalence  and  throws  sweet  morsels,  like 
dainty  pastries,  to  its  votaries.  Since  the  custom  pre- 
vails of  blaming  only  the  weaker  vessel  for  being  broken 
by  the  stronger,  the  ministration  of  angels  could  not 
abate  the  crime  of  prostitution,  and  until  the  time  shall 
come  when  the  morals  of  men  shall  be  held  as  sacred  as 
those  of  women,  we  can  entertain  no  hope  for  its  eradi- 
cation, or  even  curtailment. 

As  New  York  is  the  great  centre  of  aggrandizement,  so 
is  she  a  swirling  charybdis,  forever  drawing  the  hopes 
and  ambitions  of  mankind  to  her  vortex,  and  then  scat- 
tering the  debris  throughout  the  realm  of  her  influence. 

By  recent  estimate,  based  on  reports  submitted  from 
various  charitable  and  municipal  officers,  Gotham  has 
fifteen  thousand  registered  prostitutes,  and  perhaps  four 


62  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

times  that  number  of  women  who  are  secret  followers  of 
the  destructive  vice.  By  comparison,  this  aggregate  is 
not  so  astounding,  for  it  gives  but  one  lewd  woman  to 
every  eight,  estimating  the  population  of  New  York  at 
1,200,000,  and  one-half  that  number  females.  But  the 
total  of  secret  bawds  cannot  be  approximated,  and  any 
estimate  is  therefore  liable  to  be  greatly  exaggerated  or 
underrated ;  hence  the  prevalence  of  prostitution  must 
be  considered  as  it  appears  on  the  surface,  always 
having  in  view  the  surroundings  which  nourish  it.  For 
several  reasons  Xew  York  must  have  a  larger  percentage 
of  licentious  men  and  women  than  any  other  American 
city,  as  set  forth  in  Chapter  I.,  and  also  for  one  other 
reason ,_  viz.  :  because  her  citizens  have  less  regard  for  the 
private  affairs  of  each  other,  and  therefore  have  less 
restraint,  than  is  exhibited  by  any  other  municipal  popu- 
lation . 

Under  what  circumstances  do  these  women  become 
Magdalenes,  and  how  do  they  live? 

In  answering  this  question  the  whole  subject  of  fallen 
virtue  arises  for  consideration.  Youth  is  the  target  at 
which  man's  most  villainous  shafts  are  directed,  because 
it  is  more  susceptible  to  blandishments,  and  because  the 
magnetic  currents  of  soul  and  sinew  amalgamate  more 
readily  with  the  sensuous  desires  of  man  ;  a  J7oung  heart 
is  richer  with  love,  and  quicker  to  give  its  innocent  trust . 

Statistics  show  that  a  very  large  majority  of  fallen 
women  begin  their  shameful  life  at  the  age  of  sixteen 
years  and  under,  and  nearly  all  of  these  are  victims  of  a 
confiding  trust  in  some  loved  one.  In  this  great  city, 
where  temptations  are  so  numerous,  and  disguised  in  so 
many  alluring  phases ;  where  the  bud  and  bloom  of 
society  is  nourishing  a  worm  that  feeds  unceasingly  on 
the  tenderest  petals  and  sweetest  pollen,  can  we  wonder 


NEW   YORK    CITY. 


63 


at  the  sacrifice  of  virtue?  Let  us  take  an  example  and 
follow  its  subject  to  the  borders  of  that  mysterious  realm 
which  spirits  only  can  explore  : 

A  beautiful  girl  with  the  dawning  flush  of  approaching 
womanhood  mantling  her  innocent  soul,  a  heart  swelling 
with  the  rich  and  roseate  romance  of  life,  an  eye  that 
wistfully  follows  the  lengthening,  but  laughing  shadows 
of  gathering  years.  On  this  picture  I  could  gaze  forever 


LISPING  THE  FIRST  PRAYER. 

without  tiring,  for  it  brings  before  me  a  vision  of  my 
own  young  days  ;  those  halcyon  hours  when  budding  am- 
bition just  peeped  above  the  purple  horizon  of  life  and 
left  its  first  mark  like  a  dew-drop  in  a  bed  of  blushing 
roses.  I  can  even  now  see  a  young  girl  turning  the  me- 
ridian of  her  sweetest  years,  clad  in  a  celestial  robe  of 
purity,  that  glintens  and  gathers  like  the  changing  iris  on 


64  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

the  feathered  throat  of  a  dove.  Even  her  hair  reflects  a 
brilliant  sheen,  rippling  in  an  early  sunlight,  as  her  foot 
is  lifted  to  touch  the  shore,  the  floating  isle  of  her  morn- 
ing dream.  Could  the  god  of  ruthless  and  unpitying 
conquest,  with  devilish  power,  despoil  that  bank  of  violets 
whereon  so  guileless  a  child  would  rest  her  feet,  and 
make  the  bewitching  isle  of  love's  first  dream  a  shore  of 
misery  ? 

Looking  back  over  the  flowery  pathway  she  has  so 
lithesomely  trodden,  no  dark  clouds  are  visible  ;  nothing 
but  a  bright  vision  of  her  blessed  mother  teaching  an  in- 
fant prayer  : 

"  Oh,  Lord,  I  am  but  a  'ittle  child, 
But  teach  me  all  dy  ways  to  know ; 
'Teep  me  fom  sin,  b'ess  mamma  too, 
Dat  in  all  doodness  we  may  drow.p 

In  a  moment,  as  it  were,  this  beautiful  girl  traverses 
the  highway  of  youth  to  adolescence  ;  she  leaves  a  moth- 
er's sheltering  wing  to  try  her  pinions,  and  make  a  short 
flight  into  the  empyrean.  Society  now  recognizes  her  as 
a  debutante;  young  men  seek  her  company  and  find  it 
charming ;  but  one  of  her  admirers  was  born  on  a  Fri- 
day, and  nature,  while  giving  him  Hyperion's  form,  de- 
stroyed her  work  by  endowing  him  with  a  villain's  heart. 
But  the  heart  is  hid,  and  love  never  thinks  of  a  magic 
looking-glass.  Following  society's  practices,  the  young 
and  trusting  birdling  becomes  a  frequenter  of  theaters, 
operas,  social  gatherings,  receptions,  always  with  the 
Hyperion-Satyr,  who  whispers  in  her  willing  ears  soft 
stories,  so  thrilling  when  first  heard,  but  frequently 
changing  from  honeyed  phrases  to  the  poisonous  gall  of 
wretched  experience. 

Familiarity  succeeds  the  first  protestations  of  love,  and 
carriage  drives,  trips  to  Coney  Island,  or  Long  Branch, 
soon  follow,  far  removed  from  parental  care,  which 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  65 

gives  a  feeling  of  freedom  from  restraint.  Late  suppers, 
a  little  wine,  charades,  jests  with  double  meanings,  and 
other  hidden  snares  gather  around  our  lovable,  beautiful 
and  confiding  girl,  and  bind  her  unsuspectingly. 

Months  of  time  may  be  spent  devising  schemes  for  the 
certain  ruin  of  this  innocent  child — two  hearts  inter- 
changing, one  giving  trust  and  holy  devotion,  the  other 
nothing  but  lees  of  blackest  villainy.  At  last  the  prey 
has  been  caught  in  silken  meshes  ;  at  a  ball,  turning  from 
the  lascivious  waltz  to  a  wine  table,  while  under  the 
deadly  effects  of  this  social  combination,  devised  by  hell 
for  the  spoliation  of  virtue,  unconscious  of  her  own  acts 
and  flushed  by  warm  embraces,  she  yields  that  priceless 
gem  of  womanhood  to  him  who,  gaining  nothing,  has 
left  her  poor  indeed. 

Where  are  the  fires  of  heaven,  or  the  thunderbolts  of 
Nemesis?  Can  it  be  that  there  is  no  purgatory  to  punish 
this 'cannibal,  this  foulest  vulture  that  ever  tore  flesh  from 
a  dead  body?  There  must  be  a  hell,  else  eternal  life,  the 
law  of  cause  and  effect,  the  adage  "Time  makes  all 
things  even,"  are  all  travesties  and  delusions,  or  the 
work  of  creation  is  yet  incomplete. 

Having  gained  his  infamous  purpose,  this  beast  in  hu- 
man form  gluts  his  sensuous  maw  and  eulogises  his  own 
cunning,  while  the  poor,  trembling  victim,  with  soul 
rolling  in  the  fires  of  remorse,  hugs  her  bosom  lest  that 
terrible  secret  should  escape.  In  her  own  bed-room,  she 
locks  the  door  against  intrusion  and  yet  images  of  a 
threatening  future  arise  in  hideous  phantom  shape,  and 
with  fingers  of  scorn  point  to  her  withering  ambitions 
and  proclaim  her  obloquy.  Still  she  trusts  the  leper  that 
has  infected  her  and  looks  anxiously  forward  to  the 
promised  marriage  day.  Poor  thing  !  the  roses  you  saw 
yester'en  are  dead;  the  sun  of  your  dreamy  morning  is 


66 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES, 


THE  FATAL  LETTER. 


NEW  YORK  CITY.  b7 

veiled  behind  a  black  cloud  :  the  beds  of  violets  on  that 
beautiful  little  isle  have  all  faded,  while  the  zephyrs  of 
your  golden  summer  day  have  changed  to  a  simoom, 
blowing  dead  leaves  in  your  face. 

A  letter  comes  to  her  ;  it  is  from  the  one  she  still  loves 
most ;  how  greedily  she  breaks  the  seal  and  reads  !  I  see 
her  face  blanching,  her  fingers  relax  ;  look  !  help  !  she  is 
gasping ;  why,  heaven  help  us,  the  expected  bride  of  a 
week  has  fallen  in  a  swoon  which  is  an  excellent  counter- 
feit of  death  ;  water,  quick  !  and  brandy  ;  send  for  a  phy- 
sician, let  no  time  be  lost ! 

"My  God  !  speak  to  me,  child,  oh,  what  shall  I  do? 
Darling,  look  up  into  your  mother's  face;  my  heart  is 
breaking;  heaven  minister  to  me  and  my  child."  The 
agony  of  that  fond  mother  who,  unconscious  of  her 
daughter's  shame,  wrings  her  hands  over  the  prostrate 
form,  would  make  dumb  pity  speak,  and  patience  weep 
tears  like  scalding  rain. 

The  letter  is  discovered  and  the  contents  made  known 
to  her  doting  parents  ;  they  then  look  no  further  than  a 
broken  heart  for  unrequited  love,  recking  nothing  of  the 
priceless  sacrifice  their  trusting  daughter  had  rendered  up 
with  all  that  soul  of  obedience  shown  by  Abraham ;  yea, 
even  greater,  for  she  herself  lay  on  the  pyre. 

Life  came  back  again  to  the  simple  child,  but  it  was  a 
living  without  heart,  an  existence  groveling  in  the 
shadows  of  despair ;  a  life  walking  in  eternal  night ; 
reading  her  epitaph  in  every  flower,  hearing  no  sound 
save  the  curses  of  leering  imps,  and  looking  -nowhere 
save  into  phantom  faces  mocking  her  dislionor. 

Alone,  in  the  room  where  mother's  love  taught  her 
that  little  prayer  beside  a  sister  who,  too,  was  a,  pupil, 
she  thinks  of  all  those  roseate  hours,  those  beautiful 
jewels  in  life's  garniture  ;  of  a  mother's  bounteous  love 


MYSTERIES    ^\D    MISERIES. 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  69 

and  care  ;  of  all  the  bright  visions  thrown  out  so  vividly 
on  the  canvas  of  her  youth,  and  then — of  the  bitter 
dregs ;  the  searing  conscience ;  the  blasted  hopes,  and 
withered  life.  There,  before  her,  lies  that  cruel  letter, 
the  seal  of  obloquy,  and  gazing  on  it  through  the 
windows  of  her  tears  she  grasps  the  thought  which  steals 
into  her  brain  like  a  wraith  of  murder — Lethe's  waters 
roll  at  her  feet  and  under  its  waves  the  soul  reposes  in 
forgetfulness.  Once  conceived,  no  hand  can  stay  that 
dreadful  purpose ;  softly  she  withdraws  from  a  shelter 
prepared  by  mother' s  hands ;  out  from  the  shades  of 
honeysuckles  and  the  perfumes  of  May  flowers,  she  flies 
swiftly  to  the  rolling  beach  or  some  towering  cliff,  and 
ends  the  beautiful  life  begun  with  cymbal  and  song  and 
dying  in  tears  and  shadows. 


CHAPTER  V. 

PROSTITUTION  CONTINUED. 

THE  story  related  in  the  preceding  chapter  Is  one  re- 
peated so  often  that  it  is  commonplace,  and  yet,  who  can 
read  so  truthful  a  description  without  feeling  that  our 
society  is  like  apples  of  ashes,  and  its  practices  danger- 
ous to  our  youth?  But  the  footsteps  we  followed  led 
from  a  mansion  of  plenty,  where  the  effect  of  precept 
and  careful  training  would  naturally  appear.  Let  us  now 
consider  another  illustration  of  the  purveyor's  artifice, 
the  flesh-eating  basilisk,  who  prowls  at  the  wicket  gate  of 
virtue  like  a  fox  before  the  doors  of  a  hennery : 

Summer  has  come,  and  the  hot  rays  of  a  burnished 


70  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

sun  pour  down  on  brick  and  granite,  steaming  the 
streets  and  admonishing  New  York's  sweltering  hosts 
that  cooling  winds  and  fragrant  odors  can  only  be  found 
in  the  country  or  at  sea-side  resorts.  Many  of  the 
aristocrats,  with  pack  and  bundle,  seek  shades  of  comfort 
up  in  the  New  England  villages,  where  rural  simplicity 
disports  itself  in  happy  abandon.  Not  a  few  of  Gotham's 
young  men,  of  sporting  proclivities,  visit  these  Puritani- 
cal resorts  because  of  the  opportunities  there  offered  for 
luxuriating  in  fields  where  youthful  innocence  extends  a 
generous  palm  to  all.  They  take  advantage  of  this  mu- 
nificent hospitality  and  confidence,  for  to  them  a  trusting 
heart  becomes  at  once  the  key  and  door  which  gives  en- 
trance to  that  sacred  shrine  where  purity  has  offered 
sacrifice  for  sixteen  or  more  years  ;  where  sits  the  spirit 
of  holiness  that  lights  the  lamp  of  love. 

She  is  only  a  child,  that  nurses  a  fond  ambition ;  a 
little  girl  looking  away  from  the  fireside  and  swinging 
crane,  clothed  in  humble  apparel,  day  dreaming.  She 
casts  her  sweet  young  eyes  down  the  lane  of  futurity 
which  leads  to  a  large,  green  plain,  fruitful  of  heraldry 
and  gay,  plumed  knights;  beyond  this  scene  rise  the 
domes  and  spires  of  a  great  city,  in  the  center  of  which 
is  a  wondrous  palace  populous  with  her  own  long  retinue 
of  bright  liveried  servants,  while  she  sits  beside  her  own 
dear  prince,  listening  to  delicious  music,  and  resting  se- 
cure in  the  possession  of  all  her  callow  heart  aspires  to. 

This  is  the  dream  of  a  lonesome  girl,  which  makes  her 
life  one  perpetual  sigh  for  the  coming  of  a  lover ;  one 
which  she  pictures  is  full  of  lute-like  phrases  and  softly- 
wooing  melodies.  How  easy  is  the  conquest  of  this  ten- 
der youth,  whose  little  world  knows  nothing  of  deception, 
and  whose  bosom  is  just  beginning  to  put  on  a  graceful 
expansion  for  a  nestling  of  responsive  affection. 


NEW   YORK    CITY. 


71 


DAY  DREAMING. 


72  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

Now  comes  the  Lothario,  fresh  with  the  cunning  of  his 
studied  ways,  out  of  a  mighty  city  which  has  been  to  him 
a  school  for  learning  the  easiest  paths  to  virtue's  shrine. 
His  perfumed  locks  and  costly  raiment  hang  on  him  like 
trade-marks  of  fortune,  and  with  that  assurance  born  of 
skill  in  vice,  he  sets  about  the  ruin  of  this  sweet  child 
with  all  the  careful  planning,  of  an  architect  who  designs 
the  building  of  some  vast  arm  of  commerce. 

An  introduction  is  easily  obtained,  and  then  the  spell- 
ing-bees, the  cotillons,  and  a  ride  through  long,  green 
roadways,  under  an  arbor  of  interlacing  branches  over- 
head, filled  with  feathered  choristers  and  the  breath  of 
happy,  teeming  nature.  During  these  rambles  and  asso- 
ciations Lothario  tells  her  of  his  grand  home  in  New 
York,  of  the  beautiful  theatres,  pleasures  of  gay  society, 
and  the  thousand  attractions  found  nowhere  in  America 
outside  of  the  great  city.  Then  he  apotheosizes  her 
beauty,  compares  city  with  country  life,  and  ends  his 
gaudy  descriptions  with  protestations  of  love.  With 
this  can  we  wonder  that  one  so  romantic  and  trusting  as 
our  little  New  England  maiden,  should  be  moved  by  a 
very  delirium  of  ecstacy?  Aye,  she  is  his  already,  for 
her  affection  was  so  strong  that  it  needed  but  a  touch  of 
kinship  to  carry  her  into  the  garden  of  Hesperides. 

But  afraid  to  strike  this  young  heart  with  the  poison- 
ous shaft  of  his  hellish  lust  within  the  village  where  her 
wrongs  might  find  ready  redress,  this  impious  Lothario 
departs  with  many  feigned  regrets  and  swears  that  the 
world  to  him  is  like  a  lottery  blank  without  her. 

Soon  after  his  return  home,  elegantly  penned  and 
daintily  perfumed  letters  pass  between  the  soulless  emis- 
sary of  hell  and  his  helpless  victim  ;  helpless,  because 
love  has  opened  her  eyes  upon  an  imaginary  world  of  rav- 
ishing beauty  where  none  but  saints  and  cherubim  have 
existence. 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  73 

When  the  autumn  leaves  are  tinting  with  frosty  winds, 
an  invitation  is  extended  for  her  to  visit  the  city,  couched 
in  most  persuasive  and  endearing  phrases,  announcing  the 
opening  of  autumnal  festivities  and  declaring  that  New 
York  has  added  beauties  irresistible  to  those  who  have 
never  seen  the  social  attractions  of  her  wealthy  society. 
Perhaps  this  letter  has  a  postscript,  an  insinuation  rela^ 
tive  to  an  early  marriage  ;  and  if  our  poor  girl  should 
chance  to  be  an  orphan ,  the  invitation  to  visit  Gotham  will 
surely  conclude  with  a  proposition  of  marriage,  to  be 
conducted  so  as  to  surprise  her  friends- 

Nothing  doubting,  but  soaring  through  an  atmosphere 
of  perpetual  sunshine  and  love,  on  wings  of  brightest 
hope  and  fancy,  our  little  New  England  beauty,  whose 
riches  are  naught  but  the  infectious  smile  of  her  sweet 
face,  the  divine  grace  of  her  person,  andf  above  all,  the 
unconscious  innocence  and  maiden  purity  <>f  her  charac- 
ter, cherishes  the  promises  of  her  wooer,  axjd  hies  away 
to  New  York  with  the  haste  that  love  incites, 

Once  in  his  clutches,  his  victim  removed  from  friendly 
influence  and  assistance,  the  lecherous  villain  quickly  se- 
cures her  under  a  bond  of  mock-marriage,  and  assume? 
the  part  of  paramour.  She  has  committed  no  sin,  foi 
guile  has  never  invaded  her  young  heart ;  constant  as 
perennial  brooks,  all  the  currents  of  her  soul  flow  on- 
ward toward  him ;  happy  as  a  bird  on  mating  day,  and 
as  listless  of  the  morrow. 

Months  thus  glide  away,  he  playing  still  an  uxorious 
part,  until  a  doting  woman's  first  offering  of  love  pro- 
claims her  mother.  Now  is  the  time  that  a  husband's 
affection  should  be  most  precious  ;  the  day  when  every 
feeling  should  be  a  silken  chord  of  devotion  cementing 
his  soul  with  hers  ;  when  he  should  receive  the  precious 
gift  of  innocence  as  though  it  were  a  benediction  fresh 


74  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

from  heaven's  holiest  sanctuary.  But  the  reptile,  whose 
form  the  devil  uses  as  a  mantle  for  hiding  black  hearts 
and  pestilential  subjects,  seizes  upon  this  most  sacred 
time  to  throw  off  his  disguise  and  show  the  cankering 
livery  of  his  soul. 

Poor,  suffering  child,  why  has  God  forsaken  you? 
Can  it  be  that  pity  is  paralyzed  by  the  unspeakable  wrong 
which  burdeiis  you?  Will  not  that  sympathy  which 
makes  the  whole  world  kin  bring  back  the  deserter  to 
heal  the  gaping  wound  he  has  given  you?  Only  tears,  and 
blood  from  the  broken  heart ;  the  monster  of  iniquity 
laughs  at  the  agony  of  his  victim  as  he  bounds  away  like 
a  ravenous  beast  in  quest  of  other  prey  to  feast  his 
Paphian  maw.  Like  an  unf eathered  birdling  blown  from 
its  nest  by  pitiless  storm,  she  lies  fluttering  and  helpless 
where  confidence  and  cruelty  have  left  her.  Charity  may 
reach  out  to  her  a  hand  of  mercy  but  Gilead  has  no 
balm  that  can  heal  the  lacerated  heart. 

Full  of  agony,  and  yet  drawn  back  by  a  mother's  love 
from  an  abyss  which  invites  her  own  destruction,  she  lifts 
the  burden  of  her  grief  that  heaven  may  see  how  weak 
she  is  to  bear  it ;  still  struggling,  she  treads  her  way 
through  wretched  streets,  searching  for  help  which  she 
cannot  hope  to  find,  until  borne  down  at  last,  our 
wretched  little  New  England  girl  sinks  at  the  road-side 
too  feeble  for  aught  but  prayer.  Snow  and  sleet  become 
her  mantle,  but  nursed  to  her  clammy  breast  is  the  pre- 
cious weakling  born  to  such  woe  that  angels  weep  with 
pity  while  God's  mercy  lets  down  from  heaven  a  golden 
stairway  and  gives  her  strength  for  the  ascension. 


NEW   YORK   CITY.  75 

"  There  at  the  wayside  Rood  one  woman,  lying, 

Like  Magdalene  of  old, 
Hears  the  storm's  angry  voices  sweeping,  dying, 

Far  up  the  mountain -peak's  eternal  cold. 
Warm  on  her  breast  a  little  hand  is  creeping ; 

She  feels  it  stir  and  thrill — 
And  on  the  soft  lips  of  the  baby  sleeping 

A  breath  of  Summer  still. 

"  The  weary,  uphill  road  lies  dark  behind  her, 

Traveled  in  toil  and  pain, 
And  down  the  valley-slopes  the  chimes  seem  calling 

Her  lost  feet  home  again. 
She  hears  them  faintly  on  the  night-wind  swinging, 

So  far  and  sweet  and  low — 
She  hears  the  echo  of  the  choral  singing 

Borne  on  the  gusts  of  snow — 

" '  Gloria  in  Excelsis — Dominel ' 

The  dying  lips  take  up  the  angel's  song : 
'  Hear  me,  Lord  Christ,  from  out  Thy  home  in  glory, 

And  lift  me — Thou  art  strong  ! 
Nay,  nay;  not  fuel  Oh,  Jesus  of  the  manger, 

Bethlehem  and  Calvary — 

Oh,  Holy  Child,  whom  once  Thy  mother  cradled, 
Take  up  my  child  to  Thee  ! 

" '  It  is  so  cold  !  The  snow  is  drifting — drifting — 

My  feet  sink  deep — so  deep  ! 
.Stoop  down,  dear  Lord !  my  arms  are  weary  lifting 

The  little  lamb  asleep  ! 
Thine  arms  are  strong,  and  death  will  never  reach  her, 

Once  on  Thy  wounded  breast — 
Lift  her,  oh  Lord  !  and  let  the  snowdrift  take  me — 
And  let  me — rest ! ' 

"  The  night  lies  dark  on  her  eyelids, 

The  snowflakes  choke  her  breath ; 
But  she  lifts  the  child  like  a  glowing  rose 
From  her  chilled  bosom's  death  : 


76 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES, 


TAKE  UP  MY  CHILD  TO  THEE. 


NEW   YORK   CITY.  77 

And  lo  !  from  the  high  Cross  loosened, 

Two  nail-pierced  Haifds  reach  down, 
And  all  the  night  is  flooded 

With  light  from  a  thorny  crown. 
And  the  storm  dies  away  in  silence, 

And  the  wind  is  still ! 
Only  the  chimes  are  ringing 

Peace  and  goodwill : 
And  the  hosts  of  earth  and  heaven 

Take  up  the  old,  old  strain — 
Joy  after  sins  forgiven, 

And  Peace  for  Pain  !" 

1  trust  that  the  reader  will  not  suspect  me  of  exagger- 
ation, or  that  these  two  pathetic  stories  are  given  merely 
as  moral  fables  which  do  injustice  to  New  York's  reputa- 
tion, for  I  say,  with  all  seriousness,  that  sorrowful  as 
they  appear,  the  truth  presents  a  picture  far  sadder  than 
I  have  drawn.  There  are  to-day  not  merely  dozens,  but 
a  thousand  young  girls  in  that  great  Metropolis  who  are 
bearing  the  same  crosses  as  those  which  crushed  the 
beautiful  young  lives  I  have  sought  to  portray.  The  by- 
ways are  strewn  with  wrecks ;  and  dead  hopes,  like 
bleaching  bones,  are  seen  in  all  the  lower  avenues  of 
that  sinful  city.  These  sad  examples  present  a  com- 
mentary on  civilization  itself,  for  I  make  bold  to  say 
that  they  are  the  product  of  society's  polluting  and  de- 
structive practices.  All  the  world  stands  sponsor  to 
woman's  reproach,  but  are  there  any  to  condemn  man's 
perfidy  ?  These  same  young  men  who  have  torn  out  and 
trampled  upon  the  hearts  of  these  young,  loving,  devoted 
girls,  are  neither  punished  nor  branded  for  their  infamy  ; 
they  are  received  into  the  best  of  society,  reeking  as  they 
are  with  the  blood  of  martyred  love ;  their  morals  are 
not  even  deprecated,  for  their  very  infamy  becomes  as  a 
lamp  around  which  other  young  girls,  like  moths,  are 


78  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

suffered  to  flutter  until  their  lives,  too,  are  scorched  by 
contact.  * 

Never  can  we  hope  for  a  suppression  of  these  pestilen- 
tial lechers  until  society  shall  stamp  the  mark  of  infamy 
as  conspicuously  upon  the  forehead  of  man  as  it  does  upon 
the  fair  and  less  culpable  brow  of  woman.  Nature  has 
made  her  more  pure  and  yet  weaker  than  man  ;  she  recog- 
nizes her  frailty  and  looks  up  to  man  for  assistance, 
when  lo  !  the  breast  from  which  she  seeks  strength  and 
love  proves  a  bed  of  contagious  pollution  which  destroys 
her  life  and  soul. 

It  is  not  always  that  a  young  girl  who  forfeits  her 
honor  for  the  cup  which  promises  happiness,  destroys  her 
miserable  life  ;  in  fact,  there  are  but  few  who  seek  the  aid 
of  so  stern  a  physician.  A  large  majority  drain  the  dregs 
of  bitterness  for  yeajs,  people  the  courts  of  lasciviousness 
and  sail  rapidly  downward  to  the  depths  of  harridaury, 
when  death  ends  all. 

It  is  a  well  ascertained  fact  that  more  than  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  bawds  in  New  York  City  are  the  vic- 
tims of  libertines,  and  almost  entirely  blameless  for  the 
first  evil  step  taken  ;  this  truth  is  all  the  more  important 
in  a  serious  consideration  of  prostitution  when  the  pov- 
erty and  corrupt  morals  of  the  city  are  taken  into  ac- 
count. 

In  addition  to  the  large  number  of  girls  who  become 
victims  of  misplaced  confidence,  in  shame  and  sorrow  be 
it  said,  that  thousands  of  dependent  women,  the  drudges 
of  manufactories,  shirt-makers,  factory  girls  and  female 
laborers  in  various  vocations,  are  almost  forced  into  pros- 
titution by  libidinous  proprietors. 

Emigrants,  young  girls  whose  poverty  has  driven  them 
to  our  shores  for  occupation,  being  unacquainted  with 
our  language  and  customs,  fall  ready  prey  to  the  pro- 


NEW   YORK   CITY. 


79 


THE  HARLOT'S  VOYAGE  OF  LIFE. 

curers  who  infest  the  docks,  always  seeking  for  fresh 
prey  with  which  to  supply  an  ever  anxious  demand. 
The  higher  toned  brothel  houses  of  New  York  are  lo- 


80 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


cated  in  the  Eighth  Police  District,  and  many  of  them 
are  very  palaces,  rich  with  display  of  sumptuous  furnish- 
ing and  grand  in  exterior.  The  inmates  are  generally 
quite  handsome,  of  voluptuous  development,  and,  of 
course,  comparatively  young,  for  in  these  gilded  homes 
of  vice  a  girl  rarely  remains  after  she  reaches  twenty 
years  of  age.  When  a  fresh  arrival  is  announced,  usually 
of  sixteen  or  seventeen  summers,  there  is  a  temporary 
increase  of  frequenters  who  pay  liberally  for  their  enter- 
tainment. The  newly  introduced  girl  receives  great  at- 
tention, dresses  like  a  butterfly,  and  all  her  immediate 
surroundings  proclaim  a  flattering  favoritism.  But  in 
this  deference  her  misery  is  multiplied,  for  with  it  comes 
sleepless  nights  and  reactionary  results  which  cause  a 
rapid  debilitation.  She  has  sold  herself,  however,  and 
she  is  as  much  a  slave  to  those  who  seek  her  company  as 
is  a  draught-horse  before  his  driver.  The  system  must 
soon  relax  under  such  a  strain,  and  within  a  few  months 
she  finds  her  company  less  select  and  her  charms  in  less 
esteem  ;  four  years  of  such  an  existence  as  follows  gen- 
erally carries  her  through  all  the  gradations  of  vice 
down  to  the  pit  which  is  bottomless. 

In  a  great  metropolis  where  incontinence  is  so  preva- 
lent, there  is  much  cunning  employed  to  attract  patrons, 
and  it  not  infrequently,  occurs  that  a  spirit  of  rivalry 
springs  up  between  adjoining  establishments,  which  finds 
display  in  a  variety  of  expedients.  One  of  the  enterpris- 
ing salacious  Madames  adopted  a  novel  but  attractive 
custom,  some  months  ago,  of  displaying  nearly  life-size 
pictures  of  her  girls  from  the  front  windows.  Passers- 
by,  being  attracted  by  so  novel  an  exhibition,  would  nat- 
urally stop,  when  immediately  they  would  receive  a  very 
cordial  and  flattering  invitation  to  enter  and  inspect  the 
originals.  This  scheme  has  worked  with  such  success 


NEW   YORK   CITY.  81 

that  many  other  houses  have  adopted  the  same  means  of 
enticement,  though  it  is  done  in  defiance  of  law. 

A  great  number  of  these  better-class  girls  have  come 
from  excellent  families  living  in  New  England  towns,  and 
being  well  cultured,  are  quite  interesting  in  the  drawing- 
room  ;  they  generally  sing  with  good  effect  and  can  play 
the  piano  with  fair  execution.  Their  deportment  in  the 
parlor  rarely  exceeds  the  permissible  foibles  of  good  so- 
ciety, and  none  can  take  exception  to  their  language, 
which,  though  sometimes  it  might  be  perverted  into  sug- 
gestiveness,  would  not  be  regarded  as  wholly  destitute  of 
propriety. 

It  is  only  when  in  privacy  with  some  one  to  whom  they 
take  a  passing  fancy  that  these  girls  will  speak  of  the 
causes  which  led  them  into  the  ways  of  sinning;  they 
affect  indifference  to  their  fate,  and  in  fact  do  not  regard 
the  fast  approaching  days  of  their  certain  misery,  poverty 
and  degradation.  If  you  were  to  tender  one  of  them 
kindly  advice,  she  would  plainly  declare  her  own  re- 
sponsibility, and  disgust  at  your  presumption.  Yet  they 
are  nearly  all  good-hearted,  sympathetic  and  rollicking 
in  disposition  ;  an  appeal  for  aid  never  falls  on  their  ears 
without  response  ;  they  seem  to  hate  themselves,  and  yet 
love  all  suffering  humanity  ;  life  has  no  particular  charms 
for  them,  nor  has  death  any  horror.  The  debasement  of 
their  bodies  appears  to  stupefy  their  natures  until  abso- 
lute indifference  to  everything  becomes  an  inheritance, 
coeval  with  the  duration  of  their  latter  life  ;  the  swirl  of 
the  maelstrom  and  breaking  crests  of  mighty  waves  are 
alike  unheeded  until  the  swell  of  oblivion -'s  ocean  over- 
whelms them. 

The  lowest  dives  in  New  York  are  situated  in  what  is 
known  as  the  Fourth  Police  District,  and  the  Twenty- 
Ninth  Precinct,  where  crime  abounds  in  wanton  extrava- 
6 


82 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  83 

gance  day  and  night.  To  those  who  have  never  seen  the 
last  lees  of  life,  a  stroll  through  these  begrimed  streets 
and  filthy  buildings  always  possesses  interest.  The 
atrociously  homely  attract  our  vision  almost  as  irresisti- 
bly as  does  exceeding  beauty,  though  with  inverse  feel- 
ings. This  peculiarity  of  our  natures  is  illustrated 
equally  in  the  attraction  of  excessively  squalid  quarters 
and  the  soilure  of  the  occupants. 

Let  us  pass  down  Bleecker  street,  some  evening  after 
nine  o'clock,  and  wrapping  about  us  our  cloaks  of  im- 
penetrable chastity,  enter  one  or  more  of  these  sinks  of 
human  scoriae  for  the  gratification  of  a  becoming  curiosi- 
ty. If  some  skulking  garroters  do  not  "hold  us  up" 
before  our  cruise  is  completed,  we  shall  see  many  sights 
of  appalling  wretchedness  and  saturnalia.  As  we  cau- 
tiously and  observingly  pass  along  a  comparatively  de- 
serted sidewalk,  we  hear  a  female  voice  and  recognize 
the  words : 

"Here,  darlings,  come  in;  we  have  so  many  pretty 
things  to  show  you." 

If  this  invitation  should  not  succeed,  further  than  to 
provoke  a  pause,  two  or  more  girls,  according  to  the 
number  of  our  company,  trip  out  to  meet  us,  and  by  the 
glare  of  a  friendly  gas-light  we  observe  that  our  new  ac- 
quaintances are  dressed  quite  low  down  at  the  top  and 
very  high  up  at  the  bottom. 

Well,  let  us  go  in,  for  these  girls  appear,  thus  far,  in- 
disposed to  harm  us  beyond  our  will.  A  very  hearty 
welcome  awaits  us  as  we  step  inside  a  painfully  furnished 
parlor,  but  there  are  other  guests  before  us  whose  as- 
pects are  not  unlike  those  which  tradition  describes  as 
buccaneers.  That  fellow  sitting  in  the  far  corner,  under- 
going a  series  of  lavish  caresses  from  a  cross-eyed  girl, 
is  the  very  personification  of  incarnated  crime  j  lowering 


84  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

scowl,  projecting  forehead,  and  small,  black  eyes  that 
are  half -hidden  by  a  profusion  of  connecting  brows.  On 
the  other  side,  his  lap  supporting  a  flabby  harridan,  sits 
another  young  fellow,  who  is  just  drunk  enough  to  be 
idiotic  and  require  the  philandering  he  receives  to  keep 
him  quiet. 

Appearances  are  not  too  flattering,  but  our  hosts  re- 
lieve the  repulsive  features  by  coming  at  us  like  old-time 
sweethearts  ;  in  fact,  displaying  even  greater  familiarity, 
for  as  we  take  seats  the  girls  sit  down  in  our  laps,  be- 
cause, as  they  laughingly  declare,  "  there  are  not  enough 
chairs  to  go  round,"  but  our  suspicion  is  that  they  take 
this  means  to  hold  us. 

The  girl  who  reposes  so  lustily  on  my  knees  is  a  fair 
sample  of  the  other  feminine  inmates ;  she  is  a  mixture 
of  absurdities,  and  as  appetizing  as  a  hash  made  of  Lim- 
burger  cheese,  dried  herring  and  salt  codfish.  Her  face 
looks  like  that  of  a  convalescing  small-pox  patient,  and 
her  limbs — what  I  can  see  of  them — are  as  ample  and 
shapeless  as  those  of  an  elephant. 

Purely  in  the  interest  of  duty  and  curiosity  I  affect  an 
interest  in  her  conversation,  however  repulsive  and  libid- 
inous her  phrases  and  solicitation.  It  is  not  long  before  we 
discover  that  among  these  harlots  there  is  not  one  who 
exhibits  the  slightest  trace  of  modesty ;  their  natures  are 
so  indecent,  by  abnormal  cultivation,  that  they  think  of 
nothing  beyond  some  sensual  employment.  Every  man 
that  falls  under  their  touch  and  influence  becomes  the 
recipient  of  shameful  caresses  and  a  witness  to  shocking 
exposures  about  which  it  is  too  indelicate  to  write,  even 
by  inference. 

Taking  our  departure  from  this  sink  of  lewdness,  and 
continuing  our  steps  a  few  blocks  further  down  the 
street,  we  pause  before  a  more  pretentious  building,  from 


NEW  YORK   CITY.  85 

which  is  issuing  a  sound  of  revelry,  and  meeting  with  an- 
other pressing  invitation,  enter  this  second  haunt  of 
abandoned  minxes.  Our  reception  is  very  friendly,  for 
a  woman  clad  in  curtailed  vestments  is  stationed  at  the 
door  whose  duty  it  is  to  give  a  Delilah's  welcome  to  all 
comers.  In  an  ante-chamber  are  two  girls  purposely  ad- 
justing their  scant  crinoline,  apparently  unconscious  that 
parts  of  their  forms  are  immodestly  exposed. 

A  sighing  and  screeching  fiddle,  accompanied  by  piano 
and  harp,  is  inciting  a  crowd  of  men  and  women  to  mad 
endeavors  in  a  large  adjoining  room  ;  it  is  the  waltz  they 
are  dancing,  and  one,  too,  which  no  Black  Crook  enter- 
tainment ever  gave  greater  license  for  indecorous  exhi- 
bitions. Many  of  the  scenes  are  importations  from  Paris, 
in  which  the  qualifications  of  female  dancers  are  estimated 
by  the  expansiveness  of  their  legs.  Before  we  have  time 
for  considering  our  position,  each  of  us  is  gathered  by  a 
twirling  girl  who  rushes  into  the  room,  and  with  brawny 
arms  about  our  necks  we  become  enforced  participants, 
losing  our  hats  as  a  leg  in  short  pantalettes  passes  over 
and  just  grazes  our  heads. 

Fumes  of  adulterated  whiskey  strike  our  sensitive 
noses,  and  it  is  plain  to  be  seen  that  every  one  in  the 
room,  excepting  ourselves,  is  indulging  a  big  drunk. 
So  many  excited  dancers,  tippling  through  a  dizzy 
symposium,  jostle  rudely  against  each  other  until  closely 
embraced  couples  go  sprawling  on  the  floor  in  an  admix- 
ture of  intoxication  and  lasciviousness. 

The  fun  is  altogether  too  furious  for  our  enjoyment, 
so  we  seek  an  opportunity  to  withdraw,  and  soon  after 
enter  a  third  pitfall,  where  a  half-dozen  ill-favored 
wretches  try  to  receive  us  with  generous  demonstration. 
By  their  garb  we  know  they  are  women,  but  of  a  type 
which  is  so  repellant  that  we  cannot  suffer  the  defilement 


86 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 


NEW  YORK  CITY.  87 

of  their  touch.  Being  shoved  down  in  the  scale  of  life 
till  they  are  a  part  of  the  city's  sewage,  their  very 
breath  has  about  it  the  odor  of  disease  and  contagion. 
Faces  that  are  a  trade-mark  of  degradation  ;  with  rheumy 
eyes,  bloated  features,  nerveless  bodies  and  spiritless 
souls.  They  are  in  the  last  stages  of  social  leprosy,  sus- 
tained by  potations  of  strong  drink,  which  are  already 
blighting  their  brains  and  driving  them  into  eternal  bond- 
age. 

These  women  were  all  once  ornaments  in  happy  fami- 
lies, the  joy  of  loving  mothers,  and  perhaps  the  ambition 
of  doting  swains.  Life  was  to  them  full  of  the  sunshine 
that  warms  rose-buds  into  blooming  and  calls  all  nature 
into  fruitage ;  they  climbed  summits  of  fond  hopes  and 
basked  under  rays  of  delicious  love,  but, alas  !  only  to  learn 
how  bitter  are  the  dregs  of  adversity.  Through  treachery 
and  deceit,  like  that  which  compassed  the  life  of  our  New 
England  girl,  they  became  victims  to  their  own  innocence 
and  boundless  affection .  Their  existence  now  is  like  a 
honey-comb  with  all  the  sweets  extracted,  nothing  left 
save  the  cells,  which  once  held  such  delicious  condiments 
of  virtue,  now  filled  with  the  gall  of  pollution  and  misery. 

That  these  girls,  destitute  and  blasted  as  they  are,  do 
sometimes  reflect  upon  the  circumstances  which  brought 
to  them  such  bitter  fruit  of  experience,  is  evidenced  by 
the  following  lines,  which  were  written  by  a  prostitute 
and  found  under  the  coverlets  of  her  death-bed .  They 
were  thus  headed  : 


"  The  wretched  victim  of  a  quick  decay, 
Relieved  from  life,  on  humble  bed  of  clay, 
The  last  and  only  refuge  for  my  woes, 
A  love-lost,  ruined  female,  I  repose. 
From  the  sad  hour  I  listened  to  his  charms, 
And  fell,  half  forced,  in  the  deceiver's  arms, 


88  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

To  that  whose  awful  veil  hides  every  fault, 
Sheltering  my  sufferings  in  this  welcome  vault, 
When  pampered,  starved,  abandoned,  or  in  drink, 
My  thoughts  were  racked  in  striving  not  to  think  I 
Nor  could  rejected  conscience  claim  the  power 
To  improve  the  respite  of  one  serious  hour. 
I  durst  not  look  to  what  I  was  before ; 
My  soul  shrank  back,  and  wished  to  be  no  more. 
Of  eye  undaunted,  and  of  touch  impure, 
Old  ere  of  age,  worn  out  when  scarce  mature  ; 
Daily  debased  to  stifle  my  disgust 
Of  forced  enjoyment  in  affected  lust ; 
Covered  with  guilt,  infection,  debt,  and  want, 
My  home  a  brothel,  and  the  streets  my  haunt, 
For  seven  long  years  of  infamy  I've  pined, 
And  fondled,  loathed,  and  preyed  upon  mankind, 
Till,  the  full  course  of  sin  and  vice  gone  through, 
My  shattered  fabric  failed  at  twenty- two." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ASSIGNATION  HOUSES. 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  I  have  sought  to  describe 
public  prostitution,  which,  while  conducted  openly  and 
with  pretenses  not  unlike  legitimate  business,  is  far  less 
destructive  of  public  morals  than  the  covert  practices 
known  as  "assignations."  This  term  has  a  distinct 
meaning  quite  at  variance  with  the  general  definition,  for 
it  implies  both  an  agreement  and  specific  place  for  libid- 
inous meeting  between  the  sexes.  Assignation  houses  are 
maintained  by  immoral  practices,  which,  in  many  cases, 


NEW   YOKK    CITY.  89 

afford  a  revenue  quite  sufficient  to  support  the  proprietors 
in  affluence. 

There  are  hundreds  of  such  houses  in  New  York, 
many  of  which  are  well  known  to  the  police,  but  others 
are  kept  with  such  extreme  caution  and  privacy  that 
only  frequenters  have  a  suspicion  of  their  existence. 
Those  conducted  for  the  accommodation  of  a  promiscuous 
public  are  advertised  in  all  the  daily  papers  under  various 
disguises,  such  as  follows  : 

1 '  Rooms  to  rent  in  a  retired  part  of  the  city." 

"Handsome  room,  elegantly  furnished,  for  rent  to  lady 
or  gentleman,  and  110  questions  asked." 

"A  widow  lady,  living  alone,  can  accommodate  single 
gentleman  ;  strictly  private . ' ' 

Besides  these  there  are  numerous  personal  notices, 
which  are  understood  only  by  the  parties  inserting  them 
and  those  to  whom  they  are  directed. 

It  very  frequently  occurs  that  advertisements  under 
the  heading,  "Rooms  to  Let,"  etc.,  receive  responses 
from  rural  visitors,  who  become  acquainted  with  the 
character  of  their  quarters  by  accident  or  prying  curiosity. 
Or  a  young  girl,  visiting  the  city  for  work,  or  on  business 
that  will  require  her  personal  attention  for  several  days, 
in  order  to  reduce  her  expenses,  seeks  a  room  where  the 
rent  will  be  commensurate  with  her  means.  She,  there- 
fore, answers  one  of  these  advertisements,  finds  a  room 
suited  to  her  wishes,  and  becomes  an  occupant,  only  to 
find  that  a  gentleman  soon  appears,  insisting  on  being  a 
joint  possessor  with  her.  Violence,  to  accomplish  his 
purpose,  is  often  resorted  to,  in  which  case  the  poor  girl 
is  fortunate  indeed  if  she  resists  successfully. 

But  these  places  for  private  amours  are  not  confined 
to  the  tenement  part  of  New  York ;  and  still  more  de- 
plorable is  the  fact  that  their  frequenters  do  not  wholly 


90 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  91 

comprise  the  moderate  circumstanced  men  and  women  of 
the  Metropolis.  There  is  more  than  one  such  house  on 
Fifth  Avenue,  in  the  very  center  of  wealth  and  fashion, 
whose  patrons  have  such  high  social  standing  that  they 
dictate  to  all  other  classes  and  set  the  styles  for  parties, 
weddings  and  funerals.  These  women  live  in  an  atmos- 
phere impregnated  with  voluptuousness  ;  they  make  New 
York  society,  and  are  therefore  not  amenable  to  its 
proscriptions  ;  they  wear  apparel  that  the  Parisian  demi- 
monde have  adopted,  loll  at  their  ease  and  read  vapid 
love  stories  of  French  production ;  high  wines  and  low 
wines  flavor  all  their  food,  and  when  lassitude  becomes 
unpleasant,  extra-dry  champagnes  are  resorted  to ;  thus 
their  blood  is  quickened,  and  idleness  serves  as  food  to 
fatten  their  sensual  natures.  Husbands  and  fathers  swim 
in. the  swirling  eddy  and  reckon  little  of  the  pestilential 
surroundings  which  destroy  domestic  associations. 
Among  the  more  select  classes  who  ease  their  cravings 
at  strictly  private  places,  there  are  a  majority  who,  to 
cover  their  sins  more  effectually,  maintain  special  apart- 
ments in  these  houses  and,  heavily  veiled,  receive  their 
paramours,  carefully  refraining  from  any  outburst  or 
demonstration  which  might  discover  themselves  to  their 
guilty  companions. 

Every  caller  must  be  well  known  to  the  proprietress — 
women  are  always  at  the  head  of  such  establishments — 
if  he  hopes  to  gain  admission,  for  such  secrets  must  be 
inviolate,  and  every  means  is  therefore  taken  to  avoid  ex- 
posure. There  are  assignation  house  keepers  in  New 
York  possessing  such  precious  knowledge  that  should 
they  choose  to  make  disclosures,  the  result  would  shake 
our  social  world  to  the  very  center.  Queens  Catharine 
and  Isabella  were  never  more  slaves  to  passion  than  are 
hundreds  of  royally  clad  aristocrats  of  New  York,  who 


92  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

pay  princely  fees  to  keepers  of  their  secrets  as  hush- 
money.  They  are  always  on  the  summit  of  a  volcano 
which  promises  momentarily  to  discharge  its  fiery  con- 
tents, and  not  infrequently  the  dreaded  denouement  falls 
upon  them  with  such  terrific  force  as  to  totally  destro*y 
the  last  vestige  of  domesticity,  and  divorce  is  the  conse- 
quence. 

A  greater  amount  of  illicit  indulgences,  however,  occur 
at  hotels,  where  assignations  are  made  and  amours  partici- 
pated in,  despite  the  most  watchful  care  of  hotel  mana- 
gers. Very  frequently  meetings  take  place  on  the  street 
or  at  private  gatherings  where  arrangements  are  made  for 
stopping  a  short  while  at  leading  hotels,  under  a  false 
registry:  "  Man  and  wife,"  which  secures  a  single  room 
for  the  two  ;  or  adjacent  rooms  when  the  register  records 
father  and  daughter,  brother  and  sister,  lady  and  escort, 
etc.  In  fact,  so  many  expedients  are  resorted  to  that  no 
hotel  in  New  York  City  can  hope  for  detection  of  all  the 
vagrant  bawds  and  libertines  who  become  guests  for  im- 
moral purposes.  Watchmen  are  stationed  on  every  floor 
of  the  first-class  hotels  solely  to  look  out  for  suspicious 
persons,  but  they  are  more  a  deterrent  than  successful 
in  catching  guilty  couples. 

The  summer  resorts  about  New  York  are  favorite 
places  for  assignations.  Women,  whose  husbands  or 
parents  are  kept  in  the  city  by  business,  have  abundant 
advantages  for  meeting  their  lovers  at  Coney  Island  and 
Long  Branch,  and  the  opportunities  are  not  left  unim- 
proved, as  any  close  observer  visiting  these  fashionable 
seaside  places  may  readily  perceive. 

The  great  prevalence  of  this  .intrusive  evil  has  so  far 
destroyed  domestic  confidence  that  scores  of  heads  of 
families  are  under  the  constant  vigilance  of  detectives. 
Sometimes  it  occurs  that  husband  and  wife  will  employ — 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  93 

of  course,  unconsciously — the  same  censor,  in  which  case 
the  report  is  generally  favorable  to  each,  or  of  a  doubtful 
character,  until  his  services  become  plainly  nugatory  to 
both  employers. 

Every  example  found  in  the  practice  of  promiscuity 
serves  to  illustrate  what  painful  sacrifices  are  necessary 
for  this  fleeting  and  dangerous  enjoyment.  In  it  is 
hatred,  jealousy,  crime  and  degradation  ;  an  abuse  of 
God's  most  precious  gift — love — and  the  destruction  of 
all  those  noble  attributes  which  nature  gave  for  our  do- 
mestic happiness. 

If  the  enormity  of  this  crime  could  be  seen,  as  in  a 
looking-glass,  by  its  votaries,  every  heart  where  the  yet 
flickering  spark  of  love  lights  still  a  soul  of  remembered 
purity,  would  shudder  as  though  they  were  treading  the 
brink  of  hell  through  smoke  of  torment. 


CHAPTEK  VII. 

THE    RICH. 

THE  wealth  of  New  York  is  enormous,  so  great  in  fact 
that  she  is  recognized  as  the  financial  center  of  America, 
to  which  nearly  all  business  pays  tribute.  And  yet,  as  a 
manufacturing  city,  Gotham  is  hardly  half  so  important 
as  Pittsburg  or  St.  Louis,  and  the  tax  yielding  wealth  of 
Boston  is  much  greater.  But  several  advantages  have 
combined  to  make  her  the  chief  commercial  entrepot,  and 
money  gravitates  to  her  financial  institutions,  and  is  held 
there  by  a  magnetic  force.  Wall  street  controls  the  stock 
market  and  New  York's  rich  magnates  hold  our  railroads 


94 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


and  shipping  by  a  firm  grip.  It  is  a  trite  but  well 
proved  adage  that  "  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil,"  and 
while  we  may  all  be  striving  for  some  of  the  root,  yet  its 


evils  are  too  apparent  in  the  great  Metropolis  for  us  to 
neglect  the  lesson  which  its  acquisition  teaches. 

Gould,  Vanderbilt,  Astor,  Goelet,  Seligman,  Jerome, 
Bennett,  Belmont,  Sage,  Field,  Tilden,  and  scores  of 
other  New  York  capitalists  estimate  their  wealth  by  mil- 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  95 

lions,  but  if  they  are  happy  we  cannot  discover  the  fact 
by  any  of  the  evidences  of  their  living  and  surroundings. 
Jay  Gould,  although  perhaps  the  richest  man  in  the 
Metropolis,  possibly  excepting  Yanderbilt,  manifests  some 
of  the  general  symptoms  of  contentment,  because  he  is  a 
philosopher,  and  has  made  life  a  pleasant  study.  His 
family  are  rarely  mentioned  in  the  newspapers,  because 
he  forbids  it ;  none  of  the  members  belong  to  the  recog- 
nized gilt-edged  aristocracy,  because  he  knows  the  shams 
and  dissipations  of  that  supercilious  class ;  his  son, 
George,  now  of  a'ge,  is  never  seen  at  club  meetings,  horse- 
races, fashionable  weddings,  or  other  places  of  that  loose 
indulgence  which  induces  crapulence,  because  the  fath- 
er's teachings  are  heeded,  and  wholesome  advice  is  as  a 
lamp  unto  his  feet.  He,  too,  is  a  student  like  his  father, 
and  in  consequence  now  gives  promise  of  a  career  more 
brilliant  than  that  of  any  other  young  man  in  New  York. 
Jay  Gould  has  tried  to  cultivate  home  pleasures,  making 
his  hearth-stone  so  Eden-like  that  his  family  find  all  their 
happiness  in  domestic  associations  and  acts  of  private 
charity.  But  for  the  care  of  such  vast  interests  I  could 
believe  Gould  a  happy  man,  and  I  cannot  say  he  is  not, 
for  his  family  certainly  are,  and  to  such  an  extent,  too, 
that  their  happiness  cannot  but  reflect  joy  on  him. 

Those  who  are  most  familiar  with  the  other  millionaires 
of  New  York  have  no  hesitancy  in  declaring  that  these 
monied  princes  are  infinitely  less  happy  than  are  the 
honest  laborers,  whose  daily  duties  are  a  Constant  striving 
for  only  limited  comforts.  There  is  much  reason  to  con- 
firm this  truth.  Vanderbilt  betrays  a  lack  of  confidence 
in  his  own  abilities,  and  it  is  said  he  is  the  victim  of  a 
singular  delusion — that  he  may  some  day  become  a 
pauper.  To  guard  against  such  an  impossible  event,  he 
has  purchased  government  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $65,- 


96  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

000,000,  which   he  has  deposited  in  the  United  States 
treasury . 

As  an  example  of  the  sumptuous  surroundings  which 
are  characteristic  of  nabob  life  in  New  York,  a  descrip- 
tion is  here  introduced  of  Mr.  Vanderbilt's  private  resi- 
dence, which  was  completed  and  occupied  about  the  first 
of  January,  1882.  This  house,  said  to  be  the  finest  in 
America,  is  located  on  Fifth  avenue  and  Fifty-first  street. 
There  is  nothing  attractive  about  its  outer  appearance, 
but  on  the  other  hand  there  are  several  architectural 
eccentricities  observable  which  are  decidedly  forbidding. 
The  building  is  tripartite  in  arrangement,  being  designed 
as  a  home  for  himself  and  also  the  families  of  his  two 
married  daughters. 

One  of  the  most  striking  points  in  connection  with  the 
work  has  been  the  rapidity  of  its  execution  ;  what  would, 
it  is  said,  in  any  European  country  have  taken  from  five 
to  ten  years  to  accomplish  has  been  done  here  in  a  little 
more  than  two  years. 

The  house  is  entered  by  the  large  vestibule  which  gives 
admission  both  to  Mr.  Vanderbilt's  own  dwelling  and  to 
those  of  his  two  daughters.  The  ceiling  of  this  vestibule 
is  of  bronze  and  stained  glass,  filled  in  with  mosaic  made 
by  Facchina,  of  Venice,  after  designs  drawn  in  New  York. 
The  walls  are  of  light  African  marble,  surmounted  by  a 
frieze  containing  figures  in  mosaic.  There  are  fixed 
marble  seats,  and  the  floor  is  of  marble  and  mosaic. 
The  doors  leading  to  Mr.  Vanderbilt's  house  are  reduced 
copies  of  Ghiberti's  famous  gates  in  Florence,  and  were 
exhibited  in  the  Paris  exposition  of  1878  byBarbedienne. 
Passing  through  these  one  finds  himself  in  the  private 
vestibule,  furnished  with  a  high  wainscoting  of  marble 
and  with  three  bronze  doors,  the  one  on  the  right  leading 
to  a  small  dressing-room ;  that  on  the  left  to  Mr.  Vander- 


NEW   YOKK    CITY. 


97 


98  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

bilt's  private  reception  room,  and  the  third  to  the  main 
hall.  This  hall  extends  to  the  full  height  of  the  house, 
and  is  surrounded  on  the  upper  stories  by  galleries  lead- 
ing to  the  different  private  living  rooms.  A  high  wains- 
coting of  English  oak  surrounds  it.  Square  columns  of 
African  marble  of  a  dark  red  color,  with  bronze  capitals, 
support  the  gallery,  and  facing  the  entrance  is  a  large 
and  beautiful  open  fireplace,  with  a  full-sized  bronze 
female  figure  in  relief  on  each  side,  and  a  massive  sculp- 
tured marble  chimney  piece. 

Carved  oaken  seats  flank  the  door  on  the  eastern  side, 
which  leads  to  the  drawing-room.  The  paintings  for  the 
ceiling  of  the  drawing-room,  by  Gallaud,  of  Paris,,  are 
now  on  their  way  to  this  country,  the  present  ceiling  of 
blue  and  gold  being  merely  temporary.  The  woodwork 
is  a  mass  of  sculpture,  gilded  and  glazed  with  warm  tints. 
The  walls  are  hung  with  pale  red  velvet,  embroidered 
with  designs  of  foliage,  the  flowers  and  butterflies  scat- 
tered through  it  being  enriched  with  cut  crystals  suggest- 
ing dew-drops  and  precious  stones.  The  carpet  of  a 
similar  tone,  which  was  manufactured  in  Europe  from 
special  designs  made  in  New  York,  unites  with  the  walls 
in  giving  a  wealth  of  color  and  richness  of  effect.  The 
lights  are  arranged  in  eight  vases  of  stained  and  jewelled 
glass,  disposed  at  the  corners  and  at  the  angles  of  the 
large  east  window  and  flanking  the  entrance  doors. 
Some  of  these  vases  stand  on  columns  of  onyx  with 
foronze  trimmings,  while  the  lights  in  the  corners  are 
backed  by  mirrors  and  stand  on  black  velvet  bases — an 
arrangement  which  is  designed  to  heighten  the  general 
effect  of  brilliancy,  and  at  the  same  to  divest  the  room 
of  any  possible  appearance  of  angularity  or  bareness. 
The  door  to  the  north  connects  the  drawing-room  with 
the  library. 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  s  99 

In  the  library  the  most  striking  feature  is  the  inlaid 
work,  on  the  woodwork,  of  mother-of-pearl  and  brass  on 
mahogany  and  rosewood  in  a  beautiful  design  of  an 
antique  Greek  pattern .  This  work  is  handsome  and  strik- 
ing. A  table  of  similar  work  stands  in  this  room,  and 
the  general  furniture  is  all  designed  to  correspond  in 
style.  The  ceiling  is  fretted  and  has  rich  gilt  work  and 
small  square  mirrors.  Over  the  door- way  to  the  west  of 
the  library  hang  heavy,  rich  curtains,  which  separate  it 
from  Mr.  Vanderbilt's  private  reception-room,  which  is 
fitted  with  a  high  mahogany  wainscoting,  with  seats  and 
book-cases  of  the  same  material,  and  a  massive  mahogany 
ceiling."  The  walls  and  ceiling  spaces  are  covered  with 
stamped  leather. 

To  the  south  of  the  drawing-room  is  a  parlor.  It  is 
modeled  and  furnished  entirely  in  a  free  Japanese  fash- 
ion. The  ceiling  is  of  bamboo,  with  rafters  left  ex- 
posed. A  rich,  low-toned  tapestry  is  covered  in  places 
with  velvet  panels.  Around  the  room  runs  a  low  cabinet 
of  Japanese  pattern  (to  all  appearance  of  Japanese 
lacquer,  although  it  was  made  here)  which  contains  in- 
numerable shelves,  cupboards  and  closets.  The  whole  is 
the  work  of  men  in  New  York  under  the  direction  of 
Herter  Bros.  A  large  open  fireplace  and  a  seat  covered 
with  uncut  velvet,  manufactured  in  Japan,  add  to  the 
attractions  of  this  apartment. 

By  the  door  leading  west  of  this  room,  which  is  also 
successful  as  a  finish  resembling  the  Miaco  or  Soochon 
lacquers,  one  enters  the  dining-room.  This  is  in  the  style 
of  the  Italian  Kenaissance,  and  entirely  distinct,  in  char- 
acter of  treatment,  from  the  other  rooms.  It  consists  of 
an  arrangement  of  glass-faced  cases  supported  by  rich 
consoles  that  rest  upon  a  beautiful  wainscot.  The  wood 
is  English  oak,  of  a  rich,  light  brown  or  golden  hue  of 


100 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 


great  beauty ;  and,  after  a  general  impression  of  the  room 
is  received,  a  closer  examination  reveals  delicate  carving, 
in  different  degrees  of  relief,  on  almost  all  surfaces  of 
the  component  parts.  The  elliptical  arch  ceiling  is  sub- 
divided into  small  oblong  panels,  carved  in  reliefs  of  fruit 
and  foliage,  modeled  and  decorated  in  various  tints  of 
gold.  The  spaces  between  the  top  of  the  wainscot  and 
the  ceiling,  at  either  end  of  the  room,  and  the  large  cen- 
tre panel  on  the  ceiling,  are  filled  with  paintings  by  Lum- 
mais  of  Paris,  representing  hunting  scenes.  The  furni- 
ture is  from  special  designs,  and  the  coverings  of  the 
chairs  are  unusually  rich  and  handsome. 

At  the  west  end  of  the  hall  is  the  entrance  to  the  pic- 
ture gallery,  which  is  also  provided  with  a  separate  en- 
trance from  Fifty-first  street. 

The  aquarelle  room  opens  on  this  from  above  by  means 
of  a  foyer  on  the  north  wall.  A  balcony  for  music  con- 
nects on  the  east  with  this  gallery  of  the  main  hall,  and 
on  the  south  a  similar  one  connects  with  the  conservatory. 
The  main  staircase  leads  from  the  north  of  the  main 
hall,  and  is  lighted  by  nine  glass  windows,  by  John  La- 
Farge,  noticeable  for  the  arrangement  of  color,  and  espe- 
cially for  the  arrangement  of  greens  and  blues.  Most  of 
the  marble,  particularly  that  from  Africa,  has  been  espe- 
cially imported,  but  the  working  and  finishing  have  been 
done  in  this  country. 

There  are  several  private  residences  projected  by  New 
York  millionaires  which  are  promised  to  exceed  in  cost 
and  grandeur  that  of  Commodore  Vanderbilt's,  and  in  a 
few  years  we  may  expect  to  see  a  dozen  palaces  with 
domes  and  spires  kissing  the  heavens  above  Fifth  av- 
enue. We  cannot  have  royalty,  but  American  money- 
bags have  a  penchant  for  nuncupative  titles  which  the 
worshipers  of  aristocracy  are  quite  willing  to  bestow. 


NEW  YORK  CITY.  101 

Of  the  rich  men  named  nearly  all  have  acquired  their 
wealth  by  inheritance,  and  are  therefore  incapable  of 
appreciating  their  fortunes  ;  they  can  only  live  like  other 
men,  by  eating,  and  but  little  money  suffices  for  nature's 
wants  ;  large  investments  create  anxiety,  for  with  so  much 
wealth  in  active  employment  some  of  their  enterprises  are 
languishing  while  others  are  profitable ;  the  consolation, 
which  the  latter  may  bring  is  therefore  destroyed  by  the 
former,  and  no  point  is  reached  where  contentment  is  in 
full  fruition. 

But  the  absence  of  happiness  is  more  noticeable  in  the 
homes  of  these  favored  sons  of  Mammon.  Wealth  is  like 
blasted  fruit  if  it  is  not  made  the  means  for  display,  and 
society  only  rears  its  superstructure  on  a  gilded  founda- 
tion. The  rich  of  New  York,  speaking  always  in  general 
terms,  are  slaves  to  society,  which  places  them  in  a 
straight-jacket  of  punctilious  mannerisms.  The  parlors 
and  drawing-rooms,  though  filled  with  antique  bric-a-brac, 
elegant  paintings  and  the  rarest  productions  of  sculptor 
genius,  are  animated  by  senseless  conversation,  betraying 
a  want  of  intellectual  training.  There  is  scarcely  such  a 
thing  as  domestic  privacy — those  moments  when  man 
and  wife  may  survey  the  fields  of  love  together  and  watch 
the  full,  round  honeymoon  as  it  blazes  out  upon  a  sky 
bejeweled  with  laughing  stars  of  affection.  Under  social 
separation  all  the  sentiment  of  conjugal  devotion  and  that 
holy  relation  becomes  pulseless,  leaving  only  bonds  of 
convenience  and  a  mummified  love  holding  them  together. 
Is  it  strange,  under  such  circumstances,  that  the  rich 
man's  home  becomes  little  less  than  a  sepulchre  for  young 
hearts'  ambitions,  with  dead  leaves  of  myrtle  entwining 
Love's  sarcophagus? 

Life,  to  the  wives  and  daughters  of  millionaires,  is  a 
problem  only  in  the  opportunities  they  may  find  for  de- 


102 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


stroying  its  ennui;  surfeited  with  idle  vaporings  from 
fawning  associates,  stupefied  by  excesses  and  enervated 
by  a  variety  of  dissipations,  existence  not  infrequently 
becomes  a  burden  grievous  in  its  oppressiveness. 

The  abstinence  observed  during  Lent  is  a  blessing  only 
too  brief  for  many  women,  and  the  saturnalia  which  fol- 
lows wastes  the  nerve  force  and  vitality  that  has  accumu- 
lated. There  is  no  cessation,  for  if  a  lady  holds  member- 
ship in  an  exclusive  circle  of  wealth  she  must  be  a  part  of 
the  social  gatherings,  soirees,  bal-masques,  weddings, 
funerals,  receptions,  dinner  parties,  private  theatricals, 
fencing  practice  among  sturdy  belles,  and  the  endless 
category  of  society  pastimes.  If  exhausted  nature  be- 
comes painfully  felt,  there  is  wine  to  warm  the  sluggish 
blood,  cosmetics  for  blanching  cheeks  and  pastilles  for 
ageing  furrows. 

To-night  there  is  a  bal-masque  at  Music  Hall,  at  which 
all  first-class  society  ladies  and  men  of  various  positions 
are  expected  to  be  present.  The  hall  is*  magnificently 
decorated,  and  an  excellent  band  discourses  such  music 
as  sets  every  foot  in  nervous  motion.  The  ladies  are 
masked  beyond  recognition,  so  that  little  contretemps 
defy  remark,  and  with  wine  on  the  brain  and  music  in 
their  feet,  there  succeeds  an  uproarious  scene  of  flying 
limbs,  babbling  tongues,  whisping  forms  in  amorous 
arms,  and  all  the  welkin  of  an  over-excited  crowd.  As 
the  hours  speed  by  abandon  grows  more  noticeable,  and 
when  the  gray  of  dawn  bespeaks  approaching  day,  car- 
riages are  hastily  filled  with  pot-valiant  cavaliers  and 
temulent  feminines,  crowded  together  in  a  wealthy  pro- 
fusion of  crinoline,  puffs,  topees  and  variegated  silk 
stockings.  What  a  delicious  time  at  the  fancy  dress 
ball! 

The  permissibilities  of  New  York  society  not  only  pro- 


NEW    YORK    CITY. 


103 


mote  discord  and  alienation,  but  are  equally  efficacious  in 
making  drunkards,  male  and  female.     The  rich  of  to-day 

may   become  the  poor  of 

to-morrow ;  speculation 

runs  through  the  city  like 

an   infectious   fever,    and 

all  classes  become  victims. 

A  poor  man  may  invest  a 

few  spare  dollars  in  stocks 

and  if  fortune  should  place 

him  on  the  breast  of  an 


A  BAL-MASQUE  AT  THE  ACADEMY  OF  MUSIC. 

incoming  tide  he   may   gather  a   harvest   of  wealth   at 

high-water    mark     absolutely     bewildering.  Suddenly 

accumulated   riches   become   a    passport    for  his    fam- 


104  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

ily  to  enter  the  gay  circle  of  fashion,  though  ignor- 
ance and  boorishness  be  his  only  inherent  character- 
istics. It  is  quite  sufficient  to  be  rich,  regardless  of 
personal  qualities  or  the  means  employed .  A  metamor- 
phosis so  radical  of  ten  disconcerts  the  ephemerally  rich  and 
causes  them  to  plunge  into  excesses  which  they  would 
have  considered  abhorrent  before  their  acquisition.  Cir- 
cumstances are  the  very  reverse,  when  the  rich  take  a 
tumble  under  a  pressure  of  bad  investments.  Fifth  ave- 
nue princes  very  often  doff  their  ermine  out  of  deference 
to  adverse  fortune,  and  become  street-car  drivers,  with 
philosophical  if  not  stoical  cheerfulness.  Society  is 
therefore  a  melange  of  shocking  composition,  full  of 
idiosyncrasies,  if  not  monstrosities. 

Around  the  festal  board  of  assembled  fashionables  the 
cup  that  cheers  makes  graceful  circuit,  nor  stops  short  of 
the  borders  of  inebriety.  Many  young  men,  old  ere  of 
age,  besotted  and  degraded  in  their  adolescence,  with  the 
slavery  of  intemperance  full  upon  them,  can  see  through 
the  mists  of  their  reeling  brains  a  vision  of  some  bright- 
eyed  girl  with  a  cup  of  wine  in  her  jewelled  fingers  plead- 
ing for  a  social  bumper, — forging  the  first  chains  which 
bind  the  soul  to  appetite  and  make  them  votaries  of 
vice. 

Young  ladies  of  aristocratic  antecedents  are  nearly 
always  subjects  of  superstition,  and  with  intellects  fed  on 
puerile  sentimentality  they  become  peculiarly  susceptible 
to  what  are  called  supernatural  influences.  But  in  this 
respect  they  are  not  materially  different  from  men  under 
similar  circumstances. 

In  New  York  more  than  in  any  other  American  city 
are  the  services  of  spirit  mediums  and  fortune-tellers 
sought  for.  Some  of  the  richest  men  in  the  Metropolis 
are  in  daily  communication  with  these  occult  philosophers, 


IsTEW   YORK    CITY, 


105 


and  are  controlled  by  their  advice.  It  is  well  known  that 
Singer,  the  rich  sewing  machine  manufacturer,  was  a 
firm  believer  in  Spiritualism  ;  and,  moreover,  that  all  his 
business  transactions  were  conducted  upon  advice  re- 
ceived through  mediums  at  private  seances.  These  facts 


THE    TEMPTER. 


would  never  have  been  known  to  the  general  public,  per- 
haps, had  they  not  been  disclosed  in  the  courts  during  a 
contest  of  his  will,  when  upon  these  facts  the  contestants 
sought  to  prove  his  mental  weakness.  But  there  are 


106  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

hundreds  of  leading  men  in  New  York  who  are  controlled 
by  influences  identical  with  those  which  affected  Mr. 
Singer,  though  they  generally  succeed  in  keeping  the 
truth  secret. 

Among  wealthy  women  there  is  an  almost  general  be- 
lief in  the  revelations  of  fortune-tellers,  and  particularly 
in  palmistry.  There  are  many  Fata  Morganas  in 
Gotham  whose  profession  yields  them  a  flattering  com- 
petence, enabling  them  to  maintain  sumptuous  quarters 
in  fashionable  neighborhoods.  The  all-important  ques- 
tion with  young  ladies  is,  "Does  he  love  me?  is  he 
true  ? "  and  for  its  ascertainment  they  usually  repair  to 
some  popular  seer,  who  divines  an  answer  by  tracing 
prominent  lines  of  the  palm.  If  the  question  should  be 
replied  to  affirmatively,  what  lady  would  refuse  the  pay- 
ment of  five  dollars  or  more  out  of  her  abundance  ?  So 
it  is  always  "Yes"  to  fair  questions  and  "No"  to  the 
foul,  for  in  pandering  to  that  phase  of  human  nature 
fortune-tellers  see  their  reward. 

"  All  is  vanity,"  sayeth  the  preacher,  and  this  clerical 
aphorism  has  many  illustrations  in  the  ways  of  the 
wealthy  that  prove  its  truthfulness. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  POOR. 

IN  contradistinction  to  the  rich  we  have  the  poor,  who 
are  always  with  us.  As  the  rich  are  the  richest,  so  are 
the  poor  the  poorest,  in  New  York  City,  for  the  two  ex- 
tremes have  always  the  same  trysting  place.  If  I  were 


NEW    YORK    CITY. 


107 


asked  to  designate  the  most  poverty  stricken  spot  in 
America — though  in  my  travels  through  every  large  city 
af  the  United  States  I  haverseen  many  wretched  abodes — 


I  should  have  no  hesitancy  in  pronouncing  that  locality 
bounded  by  Fourteenth  to  Twenty-second  streets,  and 
Fourth  to  Seventh  avenues,  New  York,  as  transcend- 


108  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

ontly  the  most  miserable.  It  is  not  the  filthiest,  by  any 
means,  for  Chinese  quarters,  San  Francisco,  is  a  veritable 
world's  fair  of  festering  rottenness,  but  for  abject  pov- 
erty and  vice  nothing  will  compare  with  the  Twenty-ninth 
Precinct,  as  described.  But  there  are  many  other  streets 
tenanted  by  starving,  naked  humanity  in  New  York. 
Water,  Grace,  Cherry,  Oak  and  Batavia  streets  are  each 
lined  with  reeling  buildings  and  famishing  occupants.  In 
two  houses,  Nos.  34  and  36,  on  Cherry  street,  there  are 
huddled  together  three  hundred  and  fifty  families,  nearly 
fifteen  hundred  persons.  These  houses  have  a  double 
front,  one  opening  into  a  single  alley  and  the  other  front- 
ing a  double  alley ;  in  such  a  porridge  of  people  disease 
is  always  very  active,  so  that  there  is  a  funeral  leading  to 
the  Potter's  field  from  one  of  these  buildings  nearly  every 
day. 

The  Five  Points,  which  in  former  years  was  a  rendez- 
vous for  crime  and  drunkenness,  is  now  the  abiding  place 
of  poor  Italians,  who,  though  generally  law  abiding,  are 
in  the  lowest  stages  of  mendacity.  It  is  in  these  quar- 
ters that  the  Padrones  have  their  dens.  These  leeches 
obtain  their  living  by  the  most  impious  means  ever  em- 
ployed by  man.  Their  business  is  to  receive  children 
kidnapped  from  homes  in  Italy  and  brought  to  America 
to  practice  beggary.  These  little  starvelings  have  a  most 
pitiable  existence  under  the  bondage  of  inhuman  Padrones. 
They  are  taken  when  very  young  and  taught  to  become 
street  musicians  ;  the  boys  are  compelled  to  learn  the  vio- 
lin, harp  and  flute,  and  the  girls  are  usually  made  to  act 
the  part  of  beggars.  They  sometimes  thump  on  tambour- 
ines, but  these  instruments  are  not  so  much  for  music  as 
they  are  used  to  receive  coins  from  charitable  people. 

In  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  their  instruments  these 
helpless  children  are  beaten  for  the  slightest  want  of  per- 


NEW   YOKK   CITY. 


109 


110  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

ception  or  proficiency ;  they  are  half  starved,  made  to 
play  and  beg  in  the  streets  from  early  dawn  until  mid- 
night, and  then  cudgelled  with  brutal  inhumanity  if  they 


STREET  MUSICIANS, 


NEW  YORK   CITY.  Ill 

fail  to  bring  to  the  infamous  master  a  certain  amount 
of  money,  which  is  frequently  impossible  for  them  to  ob- 
tain. 

In  later  years  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
to  Children  has  been  active  in  discovering  these  brutes 
and  bringing  them  to  justice ;  much  has  been  done  to 
mitigate  this  dreadful  wrong,  but  all  the  Padrones  have 
not  yet  left  New  York. 

Mott  street,  between  Bay  art  and  Chatham  Square,  is 
given  up  to  the  Chinese,  who  number  several  hundred 
and  have  introduced  to  New  Yorkers  many  of  their  filthy 
Oriental  customs. 

To  those  who  are  possessed  of  human  kindness  in 
their  natures  there  is  among  the  city  poor  much  that  will 
draw  tears  of  pity.  I  can  never  stroll  down  the  alley- 
ways where  mendicancy  sits  clothed  in  misery,  without 
feeling  that  if  I  possessed  millions,  like  some  of  New 
York's  people,  what  a  world  of  happiness  it  would  give 
me  to  relieve  this  distress.  Not  that  I  would  make  a 
parade  of  my  charity,  but  because  I  could  not  look  un- 
feelingly upon  dumb  brutes  suffering  as  do  these  poor 
unfortunates. 

If  we  stroll  through  the  alley-ways  referred  to  a  new 
world  will  seem  to  burst  upon  our  vision,  presenting 
phases  of  life  which  no  pencil  can  describe  so  that  concep- 
tion might  even  approximate  the  reality.  On  either  side 
of  the  foul  by-way,  which  rankles  with  putrid  essences, 
these  tenement  houses  rise  up  seven  and  eight  stories  in 
height,  presenting  fronts  befouled  with  grimy  exhalations 
and  inherent  filthiness.  Gin-shops  occupy  nooks,  but 
however  unpretentious  they  may  appear  their  patronage 
is  very  active,  the  consequences  of  which  are  apparent  in 
the  drunken  men  whom  we  find  prone  at  length  in  the 
alley  and  passage-ways  snoring  off  the  effects  of  their 
vile  potations. 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


Crime  is,  of  course,  revelling  in  an  almost  unrestrained 
license ;  brawls,  neighbors  quarreling,  families  fighting, 
and  sometimes  a  scream  or  frightful  gurgle  is  heard  from 


the  victim  of  a  deadly  knife-thrust.  Thieves  have  their 
dens  in  these  myrmidons  of  misery  where  stolen  property 
may  be  secreted  so  securely  as  to  defy  detective  search  ; 
and  criminals,  seeking  escape  from  the  law's  officers, 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  113 

dart  into  these  catacombs  of  vice  with  that  intuition 
which  prompts  a  frightened  rat  to  seek  a  hole.  Disease 
holds  high  carnival  among  these  unfortunates,  being 
especially  active  harvesting  little  starvelings  during  sum- 
mer time.  Very  frequently  three  and  four  uncoffined 
bodies  of  infants  may  be  seen  in  a  single  room  awaiting 
the  coming  of  a  Potter's  Field  conveyance — plain  pine 
boxes,  under  neglected  mounds,  is  their  only  memorial. 

Frequently  the  wild  orgies  of  a  drunken  Irish  crowd, 
in  these  quarters,  proclaim  a  brutal  ceremony  for  their 
dead — wakes  being  very  popular  with  the  lowest  classes, 
who  accept  any  permitted  rites  that  give  license  to  de- 
sired indulgences. 

Strange  as  some  would  consider  it,  the  fact  is  none  the 
less  patent  that  amid  all  this  crime  and  pestilential  in- 
fluence there  are  found  true  hearts  beating  under  breasts 
of  spotless  purity,  resisting  very  storms  of  vice  by 
crouching  under  the  blue  cover  of  their  immanent  con- 
scientiousness ;  love  even  blossoms  in  this  poisonous  at- 
mosphere and  sometimes  leaves  its  fragrance  on  the  foetid 
air.  Here,  on  an  upper  floor,  like  a  rose  raising  its  scar- 
let head  from  out  a  bed  of  putrescence,  is  one  room  which 
shows  that  tender  hands  and  loving  hearts  have  built  a 
shrine  for  worship.  But  there  is  crape  on  the  door,  and 
a  weeping  child  beside  a  chilled  and  ghastly  form  strikes 
our  vision  like  a  death-knell  ringing  in  the  heart.  A 
little  girl  nestling  beside  a  mother,  whose  spirit  now 
bends  over  her  own  body  and  child,  trying  to  hush  that 
grief  which  infects  the  whole  world.  We  try  to  bind  up 
the  broken  heart,  but  the  childish  prattle  of  one  so  young, 
now  mingling  with  the  sobs  of  an  elder  sister,  wrings  our 
hearts  with  a  sympathy  that  is  the  very  brotherhood  of 
sorrow.  Soon  the  tramp  of  men  is  heard,  and  that 
picture  of  pity  is  changed  by  brawny  arms  lifting  up  a 
8 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  115 

female  body  from  the  pallet  of  straw  and  its  speedy 
transfer  to  a  coffin,  which  is  the  only  winding-sheet  for 
one  so  poor  and  yet  so  rich  with  her  child's  precious 
love.  Ceremony  finds  no  votaries  in  haunts  like  this, 
and  with  no  kind  word  or  memorial  of  sympathy,  the 
dead  mother  is  rushed  off  to  a  grave  which  shall  never 
be  moistened  by  the  libation  of  affection's  tears. 

What  a  pitiless  home  is  there  now ;  mother  is  dead,  and 
father's  feet  have  lingered  so  long  at  the  haunts  of  in- 
temperance that  he  is  senseless  to  his  children's  necessi- 
ties and  appeals.  No  bread  to  stay  their  gnawing  hunger, 
and  that  room  where  a  mother  died  is  filled  with  so  many 
spectral  shadows,  that  out  into  the  street  this  sorrow- 
laden  little  heart  trudges,  bearing  her  baby  sister  with 
such  slender  arms,  and  inviting  pity  by  the  innocence  and 
grief  that  mingle  in  her  beautiful  eyes.  Her  very  soul 
seems  to  ask  :  Where  can  I  go  ?  What  can  I  do  ? 

Will  God  temper  the  winds  to  this  poor  lamb? 

The  pictures  of  human  agony  are  so  variable,  as  seen 
in  the  squalid  tenement  quarters  of  New  York,  that  only 
the  brush  of  nature  can  give  them  coloring  for  a  reading 
public  to  appreciate. 

The  deserving  poor  are  a  multitude,  which, owing  to  the 
pride  that  gives  concealment  to  their  sufferings,  become 
victims  of  horrible  agony.  Many  men,  borne  down  by 
overwhelming  burdens  of  misfortune  sink  in  death  under 
their  afflictions  and  leave  their  wives  and  children  strug- 
gling in  the  deluge  of  adversity.  Mechanics,  dependent 
for  the  bread  they  eat  upon  the  income  of  their  honest 
labors,  are  often  made  the  victims  of  despairing  circum- 
stances. "  Out  of  work  :"  this  sad  complaint  bears  with 
it  a  chain  of  woes  that  link  life  with  death  ;  aye,  the  in- 
expressible suffering  which  it  promotes  makes  us  keenly 
sensitive  to  the  lack  of  charity  which,  worthily  bestowed, 
might  fill  the  whole  world  with  happiness. 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 


"  WHERE  CAN  I  GO  ?— WHAT  CAN  I  DO  ?  " 


NEW   YORK    CITY. 


117 


The  world  is  filled  with  anomalies  impossible  of  define- 
ment ;  even  the  wisdom  of  Ecclesiastes  is  opposed  by 
many  phases  of  human  nature,  until  proverbial  love  is 
Valuable  only  when  its  application  is  apparent.  The  rich 


and  poor  are  alike  unhappy,  and  with  all  the  promises 
which  a  generous  mercy  offers  there  is  still  no  abiding 
consolation  in  palace  or  hovel.  The  cup  of  impurity  that 
stains  the  lips  of  aristocracy,  brings  up  pictures  of  degra- 


118  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

dation  on  life's  canvas  and  gives  them  a  taste  of  poverty. 
The  same  cup  may  be  drained  by  a  starving  woman,  and 
its  very  dregs  become  like  sands  of  gold,  lifting  her  up 
out  of  squalor's  path  for  a  transplanting  to  palaces,  though 
they  be  of  sin  and  but  as  a  sweet  to  make  the  bitter  of 
after  life  more  acrid. 

The  poor  are  assailed  by  veering  winds  of  temptations, 
which  seek  the  side  of  nature  most  exposed,  to  blight  their 
lives.  When  poverty  seizes  those  who,  reared  with  pru- 
dent care,  hold  to  their  honor  as  a  gift  from  dead  moth- 
ers, many  women,  realizing  the  weakness  of  their. natures, 
call  for  aid,  as  did  Hagar,  but  few  receive  responses  to 
such  prayer.  When  the  shades  of  despair  fall  on  them, 
for  misdeeds,  looking  upward  for  rays  of  promise,  they 
see  in  every  flying  cloud  the  frown  of  heaven.  Grovel- 
ing in  darkness,  and  searching  for  that  light  which  puri- 
fieth  the  soul,  how  many  pause  before  that  gate  over 
which  is  written  :  ' '  Knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto 
you."  But  the  gate  and  the  wicket  are  both  closed  to 
such  as  they,  while  the  great  iron  knocker  and  seal  are 
but  mockers  of  their  supplications. 

"Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  they  shall  see 
God  ;"  so,  cleaving  unto  this  divine  promise,  leaning  up- 
on it  like  one  of  decrepit  age  does  upon  a  staff,  these 
poor  women  are  left  at  a  road  which  suddenly  branches. 
One  way  leads  to  a  life  of  shame,  while  the  other,  being 
straight,  discloses  a  glimmering  light  afar  off,  which  sig- 
nals the  way  for  those  oppressed  with  grievous  burdens. 
In  New  York  it  leads  to  East  river  bridge,  from  whence 
so  many  take  the  headlong  plunge  under  waves  of  eternal 
rest. 

Perhaps  to-morrow  some  outlook  on  a  passing  ferry- 
boat will  descry  the  floating  tresses  of  a  woman  riding 
on  restless  waves  i  the  grappling  hooks  are  brought  and 


NEW    YORK    CITY, 


119 


WHAT  SHALL  HER  PORTION   BE  ? 


120 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 


the   dead  body   is  fished  from  the   elements  that  gave 
peace  to  a  disturbed  soul. 

' « What  a  beautiful  woman  she  must  have  been  ! ' ' 
Yes,  beautiful,  though  death  has  set  his  seal  in  the 
pinched  features  and  closed  eyes.  This  is  the  only  sermon 
preached  over  an  unknown  suicide's  corpse;  'tis  all  she 
needs,  perhaps,  for  was  not  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  a 
discourse  for  all  time  and  for  all  people  ? 


PICKED  UP  IN  EAST   RIVER. 


Early  in  November,  of  1881,  an  accident  occurred  in 
New  York  which  clearly  evidences  the  small  attention 
given  by  the  city  authorities  to  the  interests  of  its  poor. 
On  Grace  street,  in  a  territory  occupied  by  squalid  and 
rickety  tenement  houses,  there  were  two  buildings  which 
for  many  months  gave  every  indication  of  an  early  fall, 


NEW    YORK    CITY.  121 

through  the  disintegrating  and  disjointment  of  their  tim- 
bers, which  was  duly  reported  by  the  inspector.  The 
owner  was  ordered  to  pull  them  down,  but  so  far  was  the 
injunction  disobeyed  that  he  did  not  even  ask  the  occu- 
pants to  vacate  the  premises  or  apprise  them  of  the  dan- 
gerous condition  of  their  quarters.  No  compulsory  action 
was  taken  by  the  authorities,  and  the  houses  were  per- 
mitted to  remain  in  the  same  threatening,  careening  and 
death-promising  attitude  until  the  date  mentioned,  when 
they  suddenly  fell  with  an  awful  crash,  burying  beneath 
their  ruins  nearly  a  score  of  women  and  children.  Then 
a  mighty  howl  of  indignation  went  up  from  all  New 
York ;  people  nocked  to  the  scene,  which  presented  a 
spectacle  at  once  terrible  and  pitiable ;  but  little  could 
their  services  avail  looking  upon  the  blood-stained  bodies 
of  many  little  children,  whose  lives  paid  the  forfeit  of 
that  disinterestedness  for  the  city's  poor  which  is  best 
expressed  by  the  term,  "culpable  neglect."  For  two 
days  a  large  force  of  men  labored  earnestly  to  recover 
the  bodies  under  the  debris,  stimulated  by  cries  for  help 
from  mangled  victims,  not  yet  dead,  but  dying  under  the 
cruel  timbers  that  gave  them  fatal  embrace.  One  family 
of  poor  but  honest  people  suffered  a  loss  of  three  beauti- 
ful little  children,  who,  as  their  bodies  lay  in  coffins  pro- 
vided by  the  city,  were  a  sight  which  fairly  maddened  an 
indignant  crowd  that  for  a  time  seemed  determined  on 

o 

wreaking  vengeance  upon  the  heads  of  those  to  whose 
apathy  the  accident  was  wholly  due. 

Notwithstanding  the  care  which  this  calamity  should 
have  incited,  other  toppling  buildings  are  standing  to-day 
in  tenement  localities  which  threaten  a  repetition  of 
November's  disaster ;  but  as  the  occupants  are  only  the 
poor  of  a  mighty  Metropolis,  whose  quarters  are  so  vile 
that  the  powerful  and  influential  never  visit  them,  let  us 


122 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 


affect  no  surprise  if  hundreds  of  other  women  and  chil- 
dren thus  perish  beneath  the  ruins  of  their  dangerous 
homes. 


As  deplorable  as  the  condition  of  New  York's  poor 
unquestionably  is,  we  can  scarcely  imagine  how  much 
worse  it  would  be  without  the  aid  of  the  numerous  chari- 
ties and  eleemosynary  institutions  which  the  city  and  its 


NEW  YOKK   CITY.  123 

good  people  support.  For,  though  some  might  impute 
to  me  an  exaggeration  of  New  York's  social  delinquen- 
cies, I  have  been  prompted  to  the  foregoing  descriptions 
solely  with  the  hope  that  criticism  might  stimulate  her 
people  to  exertions  commensurate  with  the  power  of  her 
great  wealth.  Hence,  I  would  not  cover,  with  an  enlarge- 
ment on  New  York's  shortcomings,  one  single  good  act, 
or  withhold  the  smallest  item  of  merit  due  to  her  chari- 
ties. .A  very  large  porportion  of  the  city's  population, 
even  amid  the  excitement  and  turmoil  of  a  naturally  fast 
life,  are  full  of  human  sympathy,  and  many  have  won 
the  praise  of  all  mankind  for  their  generous  and  soulful 
ministrations  to  the  poor,  despised,  and  sorely  afflicted 
unfortunates  of  the  Metropolis.  Even  the  rich  have  done 
something  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  New  York's 
poor,  though  from  that  source  little  has  come,  the  meas- 
ure of  their  bounty  being  like  vessels  with  false  bottoms. 
Looking  over  the  lives  of  New  York's  great  millionaires, 
how  few  of  them  have  left  legacies  for  the  poor  !  Stew- 
art, Astor,  Vanderbilt,  Goelet,  &c.,  not  one  thought  of 
the  unfortunate  when  death  called  upon  them  for  a  sur- 
render of  their  princely  estates. 

One  of  the  greatest  blessings  which  the  poor  have  the 
benefit  of  is  that  grand  enterprise,  the  elevated  railroad. 
Reduced  fares  during  the  early  hours  of  morning  and  in 
the  later  hours  of  evening,  on  lines  of  transport  so  rapid 
and  secure,  have  enabled  thousands  of  poor  people  to 
abandon  the  contagious  tenement  houses  down  in  town 
for  healthy  and  equally  cheap  homes  in  the  city's  sub- 
urbs. This  is  a  boon  of  inestimable  value,  the  influence 
of  which  is  noticeable  in  many  respects,  but  chiefly  in 
the  diminution  of  drunkards  on  the  streets  and  mortality 
among  the  laboring  classes. 


124 


MYSTERIES    AXD   MISERIES. 


NEW  YORK  CITY.  125 

CHAPTER  IX. 

CRIMINALS   AND    CUNNING   FRAUDS. 

IT  would  be  strange  if  New  York  did  not  have  a  very 
large  number  of  criminals,  even  larger  in  proportion  to 
its  population  than  any  other  American  cit}^,  for  it  has 
many  exceptional  inducements,  which  thieves  and  dago 
men  comprehend  much  better  than  an  honest  public. 
Among  these  several  advantages  to  pilfering  and  fraudu- 
lent professionals  are :  Density  of  population,  great 
wealth,  politico-municipal  corruption,  immense  floating 
population,  its.  cosmopolitan  character,  and  because  New 
York  is  a  focus  of  American  trade  and  travel,  which  per- 
mits of  an  influential  reaching  out  into  all  the  avenues  of 
provincialism.  It  is  not  unlike  a  mighty  octopod,  sitting 
in  an  inky  lair,  thrusting  its  endless  tentacles  into  every 
home  and  feasting  off  the  victims  thus  secured. 

The  criminals  of  our  Metropolis  are  susceptible  of  well 
defined  subdivision,  and  must,  therefore,  be  grouped  in 
classes.  The  burglars  come  first  in  importance,  but  these 
comprehend  distinct  vocations  ;  the  safe  blower  is  first, 
and  after  him  are  those  who  plunder  stores,  and  then 
those  who  "work"  residences,  being  three  divisions  of  one 
class  and  each  distinct  in  their  associations. 

Confidence  operations  are  second  in  the  general  classifi- 
cation, and  these,  too,  are  separable  into  two  divisions : 
Those  who  play  high  cards  on  banks  and  wealthy  corpora 
tions,   forgeries,  etc.,  and  their  puerile  imitators,   who 
confine  their  attention  to  individuals,  such  as  will  be  de 
scribed  hereafter. 

Pickpockets  rank  third,  and  other  swindlers  in  the  orde 


126 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


named :  gift  enterprises,  mock  auctions,  advertising 
"rackets,"  and  petty  pilfering;  under  this  division  of 
criminals  and  "bunko  lays"  a  thousand  swindles  are 
perpetrated  every  day,  and  however  general  may  be  the 


exposure  of  all  the  tricks  of  New  York's  queer  profes- 
sionals, greenhorns  will  still  be  plentiful,  and  foolometers 
be  found  standing  on  every  street  corner  measuring  man's 
duplicity. 

One  of  the  sights  most  interesting  in  Gotham  is  Police 
Court  sittings  in  the  Tombs.    Here  we  find  the  collection 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  127 

of  a  previous  night ;  the  "  scoopings"  of  police  vigilance 
and  detective  shrewdness.  Men,  women,  children,  of  all 
complexions  and  degrees  of  life.  A  high  toned  fellow, 
laden  with  perfume  and  good  clothes,  caught  in  the  act 
of  fleecing  a  countryman,  may  be  brought  in,  braced  to 
the  foulest  specimen  of  quasi-humanity  that  ever  drained 
swill  from  a  side-walk  beer  keg.  Or,  perchance,  it  may 
be  a  woman  scarlet  in  soul  but  habilitated  for  a  society 
that  sits  under  the  canopied  ceiling  of  a  drawing-room 
and  discusses  fashion  between  draughts  of  extra  dry 
Mumm.  Indeed,  the  lily  that  was  placed  in  her  bosom 
by  a  Wall  street  broker  during  the  soiree  last  night,  may 
still  be  seen  peeping  out  through  the  folds  of  her  seal- 
skin. But  the  gracefulness  of  her  toilet  grows  somewhat 
lustreless  by  contact  in  the  dock  with  an  old  haggard 
whose  breath  is  like  a  whiskey  still,  and  whose  features 
seem  to  have  become  demoralized  by  a  general  physiologi- 
cal and  facial  row. 

From  humorous,  not  to  say  mirth-provoking,  scenes, 
the  panorama  shifts  to  pictures  of  sorest  pity.  Drunken- 
ness is  the  one  crime  which  makes  up  nearly  all  the  police 
docket,  and  pitiable  spectacles  always  follow  this  de- 
grading yet  popular  vice.  We  can  scarcely  restrain  our 
risibilities  when  provoked  by  some  old  hulk  of  manhood, 
whose  happy  traits  develop  under  liquor's  influence,  ad- 
vancing toward  the  bar  "he  knows  so  well,  to  address  the 
court.  We  pity  his  idiotic  condition,  but  his  brogue  and 
incoherencies  are  so  facetious  that  laughter  forces  sympa- 
thy, for  the  time  being,  from  our  nature.  Yet,  if  be- 
hind that  moral  wreck  we  see  a  little  child  or  miserable 
woman,  still  clinging  to  him  as  their  all,  and  begging  his 
release,  they  become  at  once  the  link  that  binds  our 
heart  and  soul,  bringing  tears  in  place  of  heedless  mirth. 

These,  however,  are  sights  common  to  all  cities,  and 


128 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


require  no  description  because  of  their  familiarity.  The 
tricks  of  New  York  swindlers  are  not  so  well  known  but 
that  their  exposure  must  always  be  interesting,  if  not 
serviceable,  to  the  public. 


Burglary  is  essentially  a  science,  and  those  who  follow 
it  successfully  must  possess  peculiar  natural  and  acquired 
qualifications.  Absolute  f earlessness_ and  adroit  cunning 


NEW  YORK  CITY.  129 

are  the  chief  requisites.  Their  victims  are  metropolitan 
residents  whose  experience  is  supposed  to  make  them 
suspicious  and  proof  against  the  wiles  of  criminals. 
Nevertheless,  there  is  not  a  bank  vault  in  New  York  im- 
pregnable against  assault ;  nor  is  there  a  bank  president 
so  judicious  or  sagacious  but  that  he  may  be  ignominiously 
fleeced.  Forgery,  however,  is  the  crime  wealthy  men 
most  fear,  and  well  they  may,  when  we  hear  almost  daily 
of  some  gigantic  fraud  practiced  through  the  artifice  of 
forgers,  some  of  whom  are  apprehended,  but  a  greater 
number  succeed  in  securing  many  thousands  of  dollars, 
and  in  spending  it,  too,  before  they  fall  into  the  law's 
clutches. 

Sharpers  may  be  found  at  every  street  corner,  who 
assume  the  appearance  of  business  men  by  rushing  hither 
and  thither  as  though  some  immense  enterprise,  beneficial 
to  the  entire  world,  was  depending  upon  their  activity. 

The  rural  or  provincial  visitor  who,  with  well-stored 
purse,  goes  down  to  New  York  on  business  or  pleasure, 
is  very  liable  to  become  a  victim  to  the  mendacity  of 
sharks  and  his  own  egregious  purblindness.  This  is  how 
it  is  done : 

Brown,  who  is  well-dressed  but  gawkish  in  manner, 
strolls  down  Broadway  until  he  suddenly  runs  into  a 
dapper  young  fellow  of  very  gentle  and  sociable  appear- 
ance. "Hello!  Smith, "  he  exclaims,  "how  are  you, 
and  how  are  all  the  folks  out  at  Chicago?  " 

Brown  is  taken  by  surprise,  and  deferentially  explains 
that  his  name  is  not  Smith,  nor  is  he  from  Chicago,  but 
that  he  hails  from  Oshkosh,  where  everybody  knows  him 
as  plain  Jim.  Brown. 

"Well,  I  was  never  so  surprised  in  all  my  life ;  why, 
you  are  the  very  image  of  John  Smith,  of  Chicago,  who 
is  one  of  the  richest  men  of  that  place.     Well,  I'll  de- 
9 


130  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

clare,  I've  often  heard  it  said  that  there  are  no  two  per- 
sons alike,  but  I  don't  believe  in  the  saying.  I  used  to 
know  some  people  of  Oshkosh,  but  it's  been  a  long  time 
since  I  was  there.  By  the  way,  who  runs  the  biggest 
bank  in  Oshkosh  now?  Tom  Parker,  did  you  say?  Why, 
that's  so,  I  remember  now;  he's  got  a  nephew  up  here 
in  Chatham  Square,  and  he  is  at  the  head  of  a  big  busi- 
ness too  ;  some  of  the  finest  paintings  in  New  York  are 
in  his  establishment.  You  ought  to  go  up  and  see  him, 
for  I  am  sure  he  would  be  glad  to  learn  directly  from  you 
all  about  his  uncle." 

The  dapper  young  fellow  has  talked  very  rapidly  with 
Brown,  and  before  the  conversation  is  concluded  the 
names  of  many  rich  people  of  Oshkosh  are  made  known 
to  the  bunko  steerer,  who  finally  parts  with  Brown,  giving 
him  a  cordial  shake  and  an  invitation  to  call  at  the  office 
before  leaving  town. 

Brown  continues  his  rambles  a  few  blocks,  thinking 
meanwhile  of  the  singular  meeting,  until  his  meditations 
and  observations  are  disturbed  by  another  dapper  young 
fellow  who  fairly  rushes  into  his  arms,  exclaiming : 

"Why,  Mr.  Brown,  God  bless  you,  I  am  so  glad  to 
see  you ;  when  did  you  leave  Oshkosh?  how  are  all  the 
boys  ?  how  is  Tom  Parker,  the  rich  old  banker,  and  how 
is  — "  every  other  person  mentioned  by  Brown  during 
his  conversation  with  the  first  confidence  man. 

This  outburst  of  familiarity  from  a  person  who  Mr. 
Brown  is  certain  he  never  saw  before  causes  some  bewil- 
derment, if  not  suspicion,  but  that  feeling  is  very  quickly 
dispelled  by  the  protestations  and  assurances  given  him, 
and  in  two  minutes  more  we  observe  Mr.  Brown  and  his 
new  acquaintance  on  their  way  to  visit  Tom  Parker's 
nephew. 

It  is  not  necessary,  perhaps,  to  tell  the  reader  that  these 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  131 

two  bunko  steerers  are  operating  in  conjunction.  The 
first  one,  through  an  apparent  mistake,  makes  the  meet- 
ing serviceable  by  learning  Brown's  name  and  all  about 
the  people  of  Oshkosh ;  these  facts  are  soon  afterward 
communicated  to  a  confederate,  who  then  passes  around 
the  block  to  greet  Brown  familiarly,  not  forgetting  to  re- 
member the  story  about  Tom  Parker's  nephew. 

Brown  finds  his  companion  very  interesting,  and  follows 
him  like  a  lamb  led  to  the  slaughter,  for  Tom  Parker's 
nephew  is  certain  to  prove  another  confederate  who  keeps 
either  a  policy  shop,  bunko-den,  mock  auction  store,  or 
some  lottery  scheme.  Whatever  the  means  employed  to 
fleece  Brown  it  is  sure  to  be  successful,  for  if  credulity  be 
not  excited  violence  will  be  used  as  a  last  resort. 

But  it  is  not  only  pastoral  Westerners  who  fall  victims 
to  these  clever  schemers,  for  they  not  infrequently  catch 
wealthy  metropolitans  by  the  flattering  bait  they  offer. 

During  a  visit  of  the  writer  to  New  York  in  November, 
1881,  when  he  was  studying  the  ways  of  vice  in  the  com- 
pany of  Mr.  J.  M.  Dorcy,  a  leading  detective  of  that 
city,  an  experience  befell  one  of  Philadelphia's  best  known 
capitalists,  which  is  worthy  of  relation  here.  The  gen- 
tleman referred  to  is  Evan  Randolph,  of  the  firm  of 
Randolph  &  Jenks,  No.  115  Chestnut  street,  cotton 
merchants.  Mr.  Randolph  had  occasion  to  visit  New 
York  on  business,  and  while  there  met  a  young  man  on 
Broadway,  who  accosted  him  with  much  grace  and  affa- 
bility. Mr.  Randolph  apologized  for  not  remembering 
the  fellow,  but  his  reflections  were  cut  short  by  an  insin- 
uating speech : 

"  Of  course,  you  don't  remember  me.  I'm  West. 
Bailey's  son,  of  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Robbins,  who  is 
around  at  Theodore  Starr's,  would  like  you  to  call  and 
see  some  new  jewelry." 


132  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

Mr.  Randolph  thought  the  young  man  spoke  rather 
familiarly  of  his  father,  Wescott  Bailey,  of  the  well- 
known  firm  of  Bailey,  Banks  &  Biddle,  of  Philadelphia, 
but  on  account  of  a  lack  of  time,  he  declined  the 
request  of  Mr.  Robbins,  who  was  formerly  in  the 
jewelry  business  in  Philadelphia,  and  also  of  Mr. 
Starr,  who  is  a  prominent  diamond  merchant  of  New 
York.  Then  he  walked  down  the  street,  and  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Madison  avenue  was  accosted  by  a  second  young 
man,  dressed  in  faultless  style.  Mr.  Randolph  reported 
his  subsequent  experience  to  the  Superintendent  of  Police 
substantially  as  follows : 

"The  young  man  came  up  and  said:  'Why,  Mr. 
Randolph,  how  do  you  do?  How  are  all  the  people  in 
Philadelphia?  You  don't  know  me,  do  you?  I  am  a  son 
of  Joseph  Drexel,  of  Drexel,  Morgan  &  Co.,  and  I've 
often  seen  you  in  Uncle  Tony's  place  on  Third  street, 
Philadelphia.  I've  been  in  Paris  studying  art  for  several 
years,  and  you  can't  think  how  many  Philadelphians  I 
met  there.  I  saw  Eugene  Claghorn,  of  Claghorn,  Her- 
ring &  Co.,  and  John  McFadden,  your  neighbor,  the  cot- 
ton merchant  on  Chestnut  street,  and  ever  so  many 
more.' 

"Now,"  said  Mr.  Randolph,  "I  knew  that  those  gen- 
tlemen had  been  abroad,  and  he  named  them  in  such  an 
off-hand  manner  that  I  never  suspected  anything  wrong. 
He  told  me  that  he  had  just  returned  from  Europe  on  the 
steamship  Gallia,  and,  sure  enough,  his  face  was  sun- 
burned as  though  from  a  sea  voyage.  He  asked  me  if  I 
was  going  down  town ,  and  I  said  that  I  was  just  going 
over  to  the  Elevated  Railroad.  He  said  he  was  going  the 
same  way  and  offered  his  arm  in  a  very  courteous  man- 
ner, and  as  I  was  suffering  severely  from  rheumatism  I 
was  glad  to  accept  it.  When  we  reached  the  station  he 


NEW   YORK   CITY.  133 

ran  up  stairs,  and,  before  I  could  stop  him,  paid  my  fare. 
On  the  way  down  in  the  cars  he  talked  of  his  artist  life 
abroad  with  great  freedom  and  exhibited  a  remarkable 
knowledge  of  pictures.  'I  met  Gibson  over  there,'  said 
he,  'he's  always  buying  fine  paintings,  and  we  were 
together  quite  frequently.'  Well,  I  knew,  of  course, 
that  Mr.  Henry  C.  Gibson  frequently  purchased  fine 
paintings  abroad,  and  as  he  mentioned  the  names  of  sev- 
eral other  prominent  Philadelphians  I  never  suspected 
anything.  He  told  me  that  he  had  brought  over  a  num- 
ber of  his  own  paintings,  besides  a  magnificent  picture  of 
the  death  of  Csesar  that  carried  off  the  grand  prize  at  the 
last  salon  in  Paris.  '  Belmont  bid  against  me,'  said  he, 
<  and  so  did  Vanderbilt's  agent,  but  I  ran  it  up  to  50,000 
francs  and  carried  it  off.  I  don't  know  whether  father 
and  Uncle  Tony  and  Uncle  Frank  will  like  my  paying  so 
much  for  a  picture,  but  it's  worth  it.' 

*  *  I  told  him  I  thought  it  was  a  very  high  price  to  pay 
fora  picture,"   continued  Mr.  Kandolph,  "but  he  said 
that  it  could  be  sold  for  that  at  any  time,  and,  besides, 
he  received   a  rebate    of     eleven    thousand    francs   for 
the  grand    prize.     He  explained    that   when   the  other 
pictures  were  sold  a  percentage  of  the  purchase  was  de- 
ducted from  each  one  and  turned  over  to  the  one  that 
carried  off  the  prize.     In  this  case  it  amounted  to  the 
handsome  sum  of  eleven  thousand  francs,  which  he  ex- 
pected  to   receive   from   France   in   a   few   days.     '  Of 
course,'  he  remarked,  *  I  don't  keep  any  of  the  money  I 
receive  for  my  pictures,  but  always  turn  it  over  to  some 
charitable  institution . ' 

1  <  Then  he  expatiated  on  the  undertones  and  chiaro- 
oscuro  of  the  painting,  and  although  I  don't  know  much 
about  pictures,  he  excited  my  curiosity. 

*  *  He  said  he  would  like  me  to  see  the  picture  before  I 


134  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

went  back  to  Philadelphia,  and  I  told  him  I  should  be 
delighted  to  inspect  it,  and  so  he  suggested  that  we 
should  go  over  to  the  Academy  of  Design,  at  Twenty- 
third  street  and  Fourth  avenue,  where  he  had  placed  it  on 
exhibition.  We  got  out  of  the  cars,  and  he  explained 
that  as  the  exhibition  had  concluded  we  should  have  to 
get  the  key  from  the  Secretary  in  order  to  obtain  a  pri- 
vate view.  *  Our  Secretary,  Mr.  Hazeltine,'  said  he,  'is 
just  like  Mr.  Claghorn,  in  Philadelphia,  in  the  interest 
he  takes  in  the  academy.  Ah  !  there's  his  house  now.' 
We  went  across  into  the  first  house  on  Twenty-third 
street  from  Fourth  avenue,  which  stood  back  a  little  from 
the  street,  with  an  open  space  in  front  and  a  bay  window 
reaching  to  the  ground.  His  ring  was  answered  by  a 
servant  in  livery,  who  ushered  us  into  a  room  on  the  first 
floor,  containing  easels  and  paintings,  with  a  desk  right 
across  the  room,  in  front  of  the  window.  Mr.  Hazeltine 
was  the  exact  counterpart  of  Wayne  MacVeagh,  and 
greeted  us  very  pleasantly.  My  companion  introduced 
himself  as  Mr.  F.  A.  Drexel,  Jr.,  and  stated  that  he 
wished  to  show  me  his  painting  of  the  Death  of  Caesar. 
Mr.  Hazeltine  was  very  sorry,  but  he  had  shipped  the 
picture  to  Mr.  Drexel's  address  in  Philadelphia,  as  the 
exhibition  had  closed,  and  he  handed  out  an  Adams'  Ex- 
press receipt,  properly  filled  out  and  signed.  Mr.  Drexel 
expressed  his  regret  at  our  ill  luck,  and  we  started  to  go, 
when  the  Secretary  called  us  back  and  said :  '  Mr. 
Drexel,  I  have  eleven  thousand  francs  which  I  am  di- 
rected to  pay  you  as  the  grand  prize  on  your  picture.  I 
have  just  received  the  money  from  Paris.'  You  see  the 
amount  was  exactly  the  same  that  Drexel  had  told  me, 
and  the  Secretary  handed  out  a  roll  of  what  appeared  to 
be  money,  which  the  former  counted  and  placed  in  his 
pocket.  Then  he  turned  to  leave,  when  the  Secretary 


NEW  YORK  CITY.  135 

called  us  back  again  and  asked  Mr.  Drexel  if  he  would 
not  take  a  few  tickets  in  the  German  raffle  for  the  artists' 
fund  in  aid  of  their  society.  My  companion  replied, 
*  Certainly,'  and  said  he  would  take  five  tickets,  the  price 
being  $10  each. 

"He  asked  me  if  I  would  not  take  some,  but  I  de- 
clined, as  I  never  indulged  in  a  game  of  chance  in  my 
life.  The  Secretary  explained  that  the  object  was  a  char- 
itable one,  and  that  I  ran  the  chance  of  receiving  $1,000 
for  $10,  but  I  was  firm  in  refusing.  Then  Mr.  Drexel 
said  that  as  he  had  taken  five  chances,  one  would  be  for 
his  father,  one  for  Uncle  Tony,  one  for  Uncle  Frank, 
one  for  himself,  and  he  hoped  I  would  not  be  offended  if 
he  took  the  other  in  my  name,  and  if  I  got  anything  I 
could  turn  it  over  to  the  academy.  They  talked  so  much 
that  at  last  I  consented,  and  the  Secretary  took  out  a  bun- 
dle of  plain  white  cards  numbered  one,  two,  three,  and 
so  on  in  large  figures.  Then  he  asked  me  to  take  five 
off  the  pile  and  I  did  so,  and  they  amounted  to  twenty- 
eight.  He  asked  me  to  sign  my  name  in  a  book,  and  I 
put  my  address  down  and  the  number  I  had  drawn.  After 
considerable  talk  he  took  out  a  green  cloth  with  a  picture 
of  the  academy  at  the  top,  and  told  me  I  had  drawn 
$2,000,  which  I  refused  to  receive.  He  insisted,  but  I 
refused,  and  looked  around  for  my  hat,  which  I  found 
had  been  placed  on  the  other  side  of  the  room  from 
where  I  had  left  it.  I  had  also  discovered  that  there 
were  several  men  in  the  back  part  of  the  room  who  were 
pretending  to  dust  the  pictures.  At  that  moment  Drexel 
came  up  hurriedly,  and  said  :  *  I  have  lost.  Let  me  have 
$110.'  I  said:  'Now,  don't  risk  it  again;  let  us  go;' 
but  at  last  I  gave  him  the  money.  I  walked  to  the  door 
and  found  it  locked.  I  then  began  to  suspect  something' 
for  the  first  time,  and  when  he  asked  me  for  $480  addi- 


136  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

tional  I  refused.  At  last  I  agreed,  on  condition  that  it 
should  not  go  out  of  my  possession,  as  I  wished  to  stand 
by  Drexel,  in  whom  I  had  every  confidence,  and  so  I 
drew  a  sight  draft  on  my  own  firm  for  the  amount.  The 
Secretary  declared  that  Drexel  had  lost  again,  and  de- 
manded that  I  should  hand  over  the  check,  but  I  refused. 

"  Then  he  leaned  forward  and  called  out,  'Men,  don't 
make  so  much  noise  there.'  I  knew  that  was  intended 
to  show  how  strong  his  party  was,  but  I  did  not  make 
any  remark,  except  to  tell  Drexel  that  he  had  been 
cheated.  The  Secretary  said,  *  Do  you  know  I  can  throw 
you  out  of  the  window?'  Now,  although  I  am  lame, 
that  angered  me,  and  I  said,  '  You  had  better  say  your 
prayers  first.'  I  then  took  out  a  knife  I  had  with  me, 
which  I  use  as  an  ink-eraser,  and  picked  my  teeth  with  it 
to  show  how  calm  I  was,  although  I  was  terribly  fright- 
ened. The  Secretary  said  Drexel  owed  $2,800  alto- 
gether, and  asked  me  to  loan  him  a  check  for  the 
amount.  To  gain  time  I  asked  for  a  pen,  and  as  he 
turned  to  get  one  I  sprang  to  the  window  and  shouted 
for  help.  The  Secretary  begged  me  to  stop,  and  finally, 
when  I  made  a  show  of  violence,  he  handed  over  the 
money  and  draft,  and  opened  the  door  for  me  to  go  out. 
I  took  Drexel  with  me,  never  suspecting  that  he  was  in 
the  plot,  and  afterward  loaned  him  $10,  as  he  said  he  had 
lost  all  he  had .  It  was  not  until  talking  the  matter  over 
with  a  business  friend  that  he  told  me  that  I  had  beeii 
swindled,  as  Joseph  Drexel  had  no  son.  I  called  upon  a 
police  Captain  and  informed  him  of  the  affair,  when  he 
told  me  that  I  was  lucky  to  escape  with  my  life.  'If 
they  had  got  that  check  from  you,'  said  he,  'they  would 
have  hit  you  over  the  head  with  a  sandbag  and  thrown 
you  into  the  Hudson  river.' 

The  foregoing  experience  of    a  rich  merchant,  sixty 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  137 

years  of  age,  whose  whole  life  has  been  spent  in  the 
second  largest  city  of  America,  is  illustrative  of  man's 
weakness  and  no  less  of  a  thief's  consummate  skilful- 
ness.  This  lesson  is  more  important  when  the  fact  is 
considered  that  only  two  weeks  previous  to  Mr.  Ran- 
dolph's  experience  with  New  York  sharks,  another  rich 
gentleman  of  Philadelphia,  Isaac  Hazelhurst,  was  victim- 
ized in  an  almost  identical  manner,  though  instead  of 
escaping  without  loss,  he  contributed  to  the  villains  his 
check  for  $2,940.  All  the  circumstances  of  this  robbery 
were  known  to  Mr.  Randolph,  yet  he  was  taken  in  with 
all  the  ease  that  an  able  general  ambushes  the  raw  re- 

o 

cruits  of  an  enemy. 


CHAPTER  X. 

SOME  VALUABLE  EXPOSURES. 

THE  means  employed  to  catch  gudgeons  are  as  variable 
as  the  schemes  devised  to  fleece  them  Women  often  play 
the  part  of  trappers,  and  in  some  respects  they  are  more 
successful  than  male  operators,  for  the  smile  of  a  pretty 
girl  is  almost  as  luring  as  the  music  of  the  fabled  siren. 
But  where  they  are  employed  the  den  usually  lays  in 
some  elevated  quarter  where  panel  houses  are  not  liable 
to  discovery.  When  a  woman  of  this  character  secures  a 
gullible  fish  on  her  hook  she  usually  carries  him  through 
hallways  and  courts,  up-stairs  and  through  rooms,  until 
the  way  is  like  a  passage  in  a  labyrinth.  Then  if  he  is 
not  robbed  a  worse  fate  surely  awaits  him.  In  many 
cases,  the  beetle-headed  victim  is  induced  to  disrobe  and 


138  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

place  his  clothes  on  a  chair  near  the  wall.  Then,  while 
he  is  feasting  his  salacious  appetite,  a  concealed  door 
slides  noiselessly  back,  an  arm  is  thrust  through  the 
opening,  and  greeny' s  clothes  quickly  disappear,  to  be 
returned  when  everything  of  value  they  contain  is  ex- 
tracted. 


THE   "  OUTRAGED  HUSBAND  "   TRICK. 


Another  scheme  is  practiced  in  which  the  preliminaries 
are  identical  with  those  just  described,  but  instead  of 
stealthy  robbery  by  means  of  a  panel  door,  the  woman's 
confederate  appears  playing  the  role  of  an  outraged  hus- 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  139 

band,  who  manages  to  make  his  appearance  at  a  time 
when  the  engagement  is  most  interesting  and  difficult  to 
abruptly  break  off.  The  woman  appears  to  be  over- 
whelmed with  fear  and  misgivings,  begs  her  paramour  to 
save  himself  by  prayer  for  mercy,  while  the  husband 
presents  a  pistol  and  explodes  with  fiercest  adjectives. 
He  demands  either  money  or  blood  byway  of  atonement, 
and  of  course  the  unsophisticated  addle-pate  gives  up  his 
pocket-book  with  unspeakable  thankfulness,  and  never 
reports  his  experience. 

Every  newspaper  or  periodical  reader  has  often  seen 
advertisements  something  like  the  following : 

LOST  MANHOOD. — A  minister,  while  on  missionary  labors  in 
South  America,  obtained  the  recipe  for  a  remedy  which  is  a  cer- 
tain cure  for  all  seminal  weakness,  and  all  the  effects  of  early  in- 
discretions. His  sympathy  for  sufferers  prompts  him  to  send 
FREE  this  valuable  recipe  to  all  who  will  address  Rev.  . 

This  swindle  has  been  exposed  several  times,  but  that 
it  still  serves  its  purpose  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  it 
continued  to  be  advertised  in  nearly  every  newspaper. 

Were  you  to  write  to  the  Rev. ,  he  would  send  you 

a  prescription  which  no  druggist  or  physician  could  fill, 
because  no,  such  medicines  are  known.  A  foot  note  to 
the  circular  sent  you  gives  information  that  "if  the  drug- 
gist of  your  place  does  not  keep  on  hand  the  medicines 
called  for  in  the  prescription,  by  so  stating  and  enclosing 
$1  or  $5,  as  the  case  may  be,  the  medicines  will  be  for- 
warded prepared  ready  for  use."  If  you  are  credulous 
enough  to  make  the  enclosure — and  thousands  of  people 
are — you  will  receive  a  bottle  of  some  inexpensive  decoc- 
tion as  virtueless  as  a  last  year's  bird's  nest. 

Here  is  another : 

"  Parts  of  the  male  and  female  form  enlarged  scientifically. 
Send  for  circulars." 


140  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

This  is  a  very  suggestive  bait,  and  many  persons,  par- 
ticularly undeveloped  ladies,  bite  at  it  with  avidity.  The 
circular  referred  to  in  the  advertisement  contains  a  lecture 
on  diathesis  and  the  extravasation  of  blood,  superinduced, 
of  course,  by  a  preparation  or  lotion  which  is  offered  to 
applicants  for  $5  a  bottle.  It  is  impossible  to  measure 
the  puerile  senility  of  a  person  that  would  be  caught  by 
such  a  senseless  proclamation,  nor  is  it  necessary  to  say 
that  the  lotion  is  absolutely  worthless,  yet  hundreds  of 
witless,  vain  and  conceited  people  make  contributions  to 
this  fraud. 

JUDGE  FOR  YOURSELF. — If  you  wish  to  see  the  picture  of  your 
future  husband  or  wife,  with  name  and  date  of  marriage,  give 
your  age,  color  of  eyes  and  hair,  and  send  350  money  or  400  post- 
age stamps  to box N.  Y. 

This  is  an  advertisement  that  has  been  constantly  be- 
fore the  public  for  many  years.  When  the  fact  is  con- 
sidered that  about  $100  a  day  is  spent  for  advertising 
alone  by  the  mountebank  who  conducts  this  singular 
business,  an  approximate  idea  may  be  had  of  his  receipts. 
No  one  with  a  scintilla  of  judgment  would  think  of  an- 
swering such  an  advertisement,  much  less  making  the 
necessary  enclosure,  with  an  expectation  of  receiving  an 
illustrated  revelation  of  their  matrimonial  fate.  Those 
who  send  thirty-five  cents,  as  the  advertisement  directs, 
receive  a  card  picture  taken  at  random  from  the  large 
number  kept  constantly  on  hand  by  the  advertiser.  It 
would  be  a  reflection  on  the  reader's  intelligence  to  say 
that  these  pictures  represent  anything.  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  advertiser  does  not  promise  to  send  a  ' '  picture 
of  your  future  husband  or  wife,"  but  leaves  the  matter 
to  your  own  judgment,  by  saying  "  if  you  want  to  see," 
etc.  By  thus  cleverly  wording  the  notice  he  does  not 
lay  himself  liable  to  any  legal  penalty,  and  at  the  same 


NEW  YORK  CITY.  141 

time  knows  that  those  who  would  be  deceived  by  an  open 
declaration  regarding  this  marital  revelation,  will  be  in- 
fluenced just  as  easily  by  the  advertisement  as  it  appears. 

SEND  120.  in  stamps  for  copyrighted  "  Nine  Letter  Puzzle  "  and 
about  the  $25  reward.  Address street,  New  York  City. 

An  enclosure  and  letter,  in  reply  to  this  solicitation  to 
the  credulous,  will  bring  to  you  nothing  but  a  childish 
puzzle  involving  the  arrangement  of  nine  letters  so  as  to 
spell  several  words.  The  $25  reward  is  offered  for  a  so- 
lution of  the  puzzle,  but  of  course  there  is  no  intention 
to  pay  that  sum  to  any  person  who  should,  by  a  year's 
hard  labor,  evolve  the  correct  answer.  Even  this  little 
silly  catch-penny  notice  evidently  pays  the  advertiser 
well. 

POKER  !  —  If  you  want  to  win  at  cards,  send  for  the  Secret 
Helper.  A  sure  thing.  It  will  beat  old  sports.  Address . 

This  is  inserted  to  catch  the  eyes  of  youthful  gamblers 
who  seek  the  covert  of  a  hay-mow  or  stable-loft  to  in- 
dulge their  betting  propensities.  In  this  notice  there  is 
no  equivocation,  so  that  it  is  a  gigantic  falsehood,  and 
renders  the  advertiser  amenable  to  the  law.  The  cards 
thus  sold  are  cheap  pasteboards  with  various  changes  in 
the  colored  designs  on  the  back,  so  patent  that  any  one 
who  ever  played  poker,  even  in  a  fifty-cent  limit  game, 
would  detect  the  "  trick  deck'v  on  the  first  bet. 

A  ROLLED  GOLD  SOLID  RING  makes  a  beautiful  and  valuable 
gift  for  a  lady,  gentleman  or  child,  and  in  order  to  secure  new 
customers  for  our  firm,  we  will  forward,  post-paid,  to  any  ad- 
dress in  the  United  States,  one  of  our  heavy  i8-k  rolled  gold 
rings,  (either  in  plain  band,  half  round  or  handsome  stone,  set 
in  either  amethyst,  topaz  or  garnet)  on  receipt  of  only  7  5  cents 
each,  and  if  you  wish,  we  will  engrave  any  name,  initials,  motto 
or  sentiment  desired,  on  the  inside  of  the  ring,  without  extra 
charge,  provided  you  cut  out  this  advertisement  and  mail  to 
us  with  amount  before . 

OUR  FUTURE  SALES  is  OUR  PROFIT. — Remember,  the  ring  we 
send  you  is  heavy  i8-k  rolled  gold,  and  that  this  unprecedented 


142  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

offer  is  made  only  to  introduce  our  goods  and  catalogues  in  your 
vicinity.  Our  firm  is  well  established  and  reliable,  manufacturing 
first-class  goods  from  the  precious  metals.  Under  no  circum- 
stances will  we  send  more  than  one  ring  of  each  kind  to  any  person 
sending  us  75  cents  each  and  this  advertisement;  but  after  you 
order,  and  other  rings  are  desired,  we  will  furnish  i8-k  solid  gold 
rings  at  prices  given  in  our  illustrated  catalogue,  varying  from  $3.75 
to  $9  each.  Address . 

The  original  advertisement,  from  which  these  excerpts 
are  taken,  recites  the  means  taken  to  prevent  jewelers 
from  buying  up  all  of  these  rings,  and  seeks  in  other 
ways  to  show  that  the  firm  so  advertising  has  taken  a 
wonderfully  "Coal-oil  Johnny"  style  of  popularizing 
their  goods. 

The  '  *  catch ' '  is  apparent  to  all  who  know  that  « *  rolled 
gold  "  is  only  a  different  way  of  describing  plated  ware. 
These  rings,  instead  of  being  subjected  to  the  battery 
process  for  plating,  undergo  a  more  modern  operation, 
which,  it  is  claimed,  causes  the  gold  film  to  adhere  more 
tenaciously  to  the  baser  metal  it  covers.  The  gold  so 
used  may,  of  course,  be  18  karats  fine,  but  each  ring  does 
not  contain  two  cents'  worth  of  the  "  precious  metal ;  " 
consequently  the  rings  so  advertised  do  not  possess  a 
value  above  three  or  four  cents — they  are  snide  jewelry. 

A  PACK  of  transparent  French  cards  for  $1.00.  The  raciest  and 
most  exciting  of  any  ever  printed.  Address  in  confidence . 

In  this  it  is  plain  to  be  seen  that  the  advertiser  en- 
deavors to  excite  the  belief  that  his  cards  are  excessively 
obscene,  and  it  is  with  this  belief  that  thousands  of  sen- 
sual boys,  and  girls  too,  send  their  names  and  the  re- 
quired dollar  to  this  lecherous  fraud.  But  instead  of 
receiving  in  return  what  they  confidently  expected,  the 
package  is  nothing  more  than  several  thin  cards  on  which 
permissible  transfer  pictures  are  stuck  by  gelatine.  Hold- 
ing the  cards  before  a  light,  you  discover  nothing  more 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  143 

than  simple  pictures,  like  those  you  may  buy  at  any  sta- 
tionery store  for  ten  cents  a  dozen.  The  advertiser  well 
knows  the  penalty  for  advertising  or  sending  obscene 
matter  or  pictures  through  the  mail,  so  he  cunningly 
words  his  publishment  that  those  who  read  it  may  be 
deceived  into  paying  a  round  sum  for  a  harmless  package 
of  cards. 

The  above  furnish  a  sample  of  the  advertising  frauds 
which  may  be  found  in  nearly  all  newspapers.  They 
have  been  exposed  so  repeatedly  that  the  wonder  grows 
why  they  still  flourish,  but  the  explanation  is  probably 
found  in  the  fact  that  as  rapidly  as  one  crop  of  fools  is 
garnered  another  harvest  stands  waiting  in  the  bloom. 

The  lottery  swindlers  are  not  so  numerous  as  they  once 
were,  chiefly  because  nearly  every  State  has  now  upon  its 
statute  books  a  special  law  against  lottery  enterprises, 
and  makes  the  publication  of  such  advertisements  in  any 
paper  a  misdemeanor,  punishable  by  heavy  fine,  to  be 
collected  from  the  publishers.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
an  honestly  conducted  lottery  scheme  ;  as  well  might  we 
expect  the  devil  to  run  his  kingdom  in  the  interest  of 
righteousness  as  to  look  for  honesty  in  the  management 
of  a  pre-eminently  dishonorable  scheme,  such  as  the  lot- 
tery manifestly  is. 

Pickpockets  carry  on  a  flourishing  business  constantly 
in  New  York,  regardless  of  panics  or  hard  times.  These 
professional  homo  trium  literarum,  as  they  were  called 
many  centuries  ago,  pursue  their  deft  calling  generally 
in  crowds,  on  the  ferries,  at  theatres,  in  omnibuses  or 
street  cars,  at  fires,  and  are  especially  active  in  excited 
throngs,  such  as  congregate  at  political  meetings,  acci- 
dents and  fires.  The  church  is  also  a  favorite  field  for 
their  operations,  and  pious  devotion  is  the  time  pocket- 
picking  becomes  easiest. 


144  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

As  the  burglar  has  provided  for  his  work  the  most 
skilfully  devised  tools,  so  the  pickpocket  recognizes  his 
necessities  and  follows  his  vocation  by  the  aid  of  instru- 
ments no  less  cunning.  It  requires  little  practice  or 
natural  expertness  to  extract  a  handkerchief  from  an  ex- 
posed pocket,  so  this  is  the  first  lesson  the  pickpocket 
learns  ;  from  this  there  is  a  rapid  advancement  until  the 
most  distinguished  of  this  class  become  marvellously  ex- 
pert in  relieving  a  tro user-pocket  from  valuable  coins, 
nor  are  they  less  successful  in  purloining  by  their  adroit 
stealth  piles  of  wealth  from  under  the  very  eyes  of  a  bank 
cashier  or  president. 

Those  who  circulate  among  large  crowds  with  designs 
on  vest-pockets  carry  with  them  two  intruments  dex- 
trously  fashioned.  One  is  a  pair  of  scissors,  the  knives 
of  which  are  each  made  in  semi-circle,  so  that  when 
they  are  brought  together,  like  two  hawk-bills,  they 
form  a  circle.  The  purpose  of  this  is  to  cut  watch  chains 
with  such  ease  that  the  victims  cannot  feel  the  act,  and 
to  prevent  slipping  during  the  attempt. 

The  other  instrument  is  a  piece  of  steel  wire,  six  inches 
in  length,  terminating  at  the  point  in  a  spoon-shaped 
basin,  which  is  turned  at  a  right  angle  from  the  shaft. 
This  is  used  to  extricate  coins  from  either  a  vest  or  pants 
pocket,  and  so  easily  and  skilfully  is  it  manipulated  that 
not  one  victim  in  a  thousand  is  ever  conscious  of  its  use. 

Women  are  as  consummate  in  thieving  as  men,  and 
they  essay  any  part  with  equal  dexterity,  from  burglary 
to  shop  lifting,  the  latter,  however,  being  a  specialty  with 
them  because  of  their  better  opportunities  for  purloining 
and  concealing  articles.  A  female  expert  in  the  profes- 
sion will  visit  a  dry-goods  store,  and,  following  an  ex- 
ample peculiar  to  her  sex,  have  the  clerks  show  her  a  va- 
riety of  goods,  until  she  sees  before  her  some  valuable 


NEW  YOKK   CITY.  145 

pieces,  then,  directing  the  clerk's  attention  to  some  other 
part  of  the  store,  she  quickly  transfers  such  articles  as  are 
most  desirable  from  the  counter  to  some  hidden  folds  or 
pockets  under  her  crinoline  ;  some  trifling  thing  may  then 
be  purchased  by  the  thief,  after  which  she  walks  out  and 
makes  directly  for  her  room.  The  goods  thus  stolen 
sometimes  remain  for  several  months  in  the  shop-lifter's 
possession,  and  until  her  accumulations  become  so  large 
that  she  sells  the  whole  stock  to  an  auction  dealer. 

Besides  downright  thievery,  and  robbery  through 
schemes  into  which  strangers  are  entrapped  t>y  sharp  de- 
coys, there  are  other  means  for  swindling  verdant  visitors 
in  New  York,  a  few  of  which  may  be  mentioned  as  ex- 
amples. The  "patent  safe"  and  " pocket-book  drop- 
ping" games  were  once  very  popular  and  successful,  but 
charlatans  have  made  rapid  progress  and  their  ingenuity 
is  kept  busy  inventing  new  devices  and  planning  different 
strategies  with  which  the  police  and  public  are  unfamiliar. 
Here  is  one  :  A  rustic,  watching  the  lascivious  dance  in  a 
Bowery  beer  garden  or  walking  along  Chatham  Square, 
conscious  only  of  the  novelties  displayed  about  him,  look- 
ing into  some  show-window,  perhaps,  may  be  accosted  by 
a  clever  faced  gentleman,  as  follows  :  "  See  here,  (hold- 
ing up  before  the  visitor's  gaze  a  beautiful  gold  ring  set 
with  a  large  sparkling  diamond)  did  you  drop  this?" 

The  rustic  knows  he  did  not,  and  answers  : 

"No  sir;  why?" 

"Why,  I  found  it  right  under  your  feet,  and  I  felt  sure 
that  you  had  dropped  it.  It's  a  beautiful  ring  and  I  am 
certainly  a  lucky  man  to  find  such  a  treasure  ;  it  must  be 
worth  at  least  one  hundred  dollars.  Why,  see  here,  there 
is  an  inscription  inside,  <  H.  L.  to  Carrie.'  I'll  bet  around 
sum  that  this  is  an  engagement  ring  and  to-morrow  every 
paper  in  the  city  will  publish  Carrie's  reward  for  its  re- 
turn to  ]ier," 

W* 


146 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 


NEW   YORK    CITY.  147 

All  this  conversation  is  to  get  the  visitor  interested,  and 
it  rarely  fails  of  the  purpose.  Still  holding  the  ring  be- 
fore his  victim's  eyes,  sharper  continues  : 

1 '  This  is  singularly  unfortunate ;  I  would  like  very 
much  to  get  the  large  reward  which  I  know  will  be  offered 
to-morrow  for  the  ring  and  at  the  same  time  see  the  owner 
get  it,  but  a  business  engagement  in  Buffalo  compels  me 
to  leave  New  York  to-night.  I  am  sorry,  but  see  no  way 
out  of  the  dilemma  except  to  keep  the  ring,  which  my 
sense  of  honor  almost  forbids." 

With  this  sharper  starts  off,  but  turning  suddenly,  as 
if  a  happy  thought  had  just  been  forged  from  his  brain, 
he  again  accosts  our  rustic : 

"Say,  I  can't  do  this,  my  honor  absolutely  forbids, 
but  we  can  perhaps  fix  this  between  us  so  that  both  will 
be  profited  by  my  lucky  find,  and  the  owner  will  obtain 
the  ring  also.  You  will  be  in  the  city  for  a  day  or  two 
yet?  Yes  ;  well,  suppose^you  give  me  $10  and  I'll  leave 
the  ring  with  you,  and  whatever  reward  may  be  offered, 
which  I  dare  say  will  be  $25  or  more,  shall  be  yours." 

Our  pastoral  friend  thinks  he  has  struck  a  decidedly 
honest  gentleman,  and  now  fully  convinced  of  the  ring's 
value,  thinking  what  a  nice  present  it  would  make  for 
Maria,  or  that  he  might  realize  at  least  $50  from  it  at  a 
pawnbroker's,  he  gives  sharper  the  $10  and  the  two  part. 
On  the  following  day  he  eagerly  scans  the  *  *  Lost ' '  column 
of  the  morning  papers,  but  sees  no  notice  of  any  reward 
for  a  lost  ring.  So  much  the  better,  he  thinks,  for  this 
gives  his  conscience  a  little  ease ;  he  then  repairs  to.  a 
pawnbroker,  where  the  cruel  fact  is  revealed  that  his  ring 
is  of  German  silver,  plated  with  gold  and  set  with  a  Bra- 
zilian pebble  ;  the  whole  thing  is  not  worth  twenty-five 
cents,  so  he  naturally  gets  mad  and  does  not  stop  short 
of  calling  himself  a  fool. 


148  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

Another  game  is  practiced  about  the  City  Hall  or  on 
Broadway,  called  "Thimble  Rigging."  It  is  an  old 
trick  under  a  new  disguise ;  it  was  formerly  played  by 
using  three  thimbles,  under  one  of  which  a  small  colored 
ball  was  placed.  The  trick  was  in  causing  the  ball  to 
disappear.  It  is  now  played  as  follows :  A  fellow  is 
seen  standing  on  one  of  the  sidewalks  with  three  or  four 
persons  about  him.  He  claims  that  people  are  so  incred- 
ulous now-a-days  that  they  won't  believe  their  own  eyes. 
After  making  some  remarks  like  these,  and  discovering 
a  late-come-to-town  fellow,  he  produces  a  stack  of  cop- 
per cent  pieces,  of  the  old  issue,  one  inch  in  diameter, 
and  placing  them  on  a  board ,  says  : 

"  Now,  here  is  a  small  ball,  a  pea,  nothing  but  a  com- 
mon pea.  I'll  let  any  gentleman  place  this  pea  on  top 
of  the  coins  and  then  I'll  cover  the  stack  with  his  hat, 
like  this,"  (suiting  the  action  to  the  word.)  "  Now  I'll 
bet  any  man  in  the  crowd  that  when  I  lift  this  hat  the 
pea  will  be  on  the  board  under  the  coins."  He  makes  it 
very  clear  that  no  trick  is  designed,  but  does  all  this 
merely  to  illustrate  how  incredulous  and  self-doubting 
humanity  has  become. 

Very  soon  one  fellow  in  the  crowd  (a  capper)  steps 
up,  bets  five  dollars,  raises  the  hat,  and  of  course  the  pea 
is  still  on  top  of  the  coins  just  as  it  was  placed. 

The  visitor  gets  interested,  and  when  he  is  challenged 
for  a  similar  bet,  quickly  lays  down  a  ten-dollar  note. 
The  hat  is  cautiously  lifted — it  is  his  own  hat — when,  lo  ! 
the  pea  is  apparently  directly  underneath  the  coins,  in  a 
place  he  felt  certain  it  could  not  possibly  be  ;  and,  of 
course,  he  loses. 

The  simplicity  of  this  trick  is  no  less  wonderful  than 
its  success.  The  ten  copper  cents  used  are  cemented  to- 
gether, and  a  bole  large  enough  for  the  pea  is  cut 


NEW  YORK   CITY.      ^  149 

through  the  center  of  all  save  the  top  one.  There  are 
two  peas  used,  one  lying  on  top  and  the  other  hidden  in 
the  scissure  of  the  coins. 

One  of  the  more  recent  schemes  adopted  by  street 
swindlers  is  known  as  the  "  trick  knife,"  the  use  of 
which  may  be  briefly  described  as  follows  : 

A  man  in  the  Bowery  is  seen  talkirig  to  a  stranger,  in 
desultory  conversation,  when  another  party  comes  up  as 
if  by  accident,  and  in  the  most  natural  manner  asks  for 
the  loan  of  a  knife.  Sharper  at  once  draws  a  knife  from 
his  pocket  and  passes  it  to  the  enquirer — who  proves  to 
be  a  confederate — without  break! eg  his  conversation  with 
the  stranger.  Confederate  tries  to  open  the  knife,  but 
cannot,  whereupon  he  passes  it  to  the  stranger,  with  a 
request  to  open  it.  Stranger  tries  also,  but  finds  that  he 
cannot,  which  leads  to  an  examination  of  the  knife,  when 
a  rivet  is  detected  that  apparently  goes  through  the  center 
of  the  blade.  After  much  discussion  the  stranger  is  in- 
duced to  take  a  half  interest  in  a  bet  with  the  confederate 
against  the  knife-owner  that  it  cannot  be  opened  without 
using  some  other  means  than  the  thumb-nail.  When  a 
bet  is  made,  if  the  wager  is  sufficiently  large,  the  owner 
quickly  opens  the  knife  ;  but  should  the  bet  be  small,  he 
fails  to.  open  it ;  and  then,  after  looking  at  stranger's 
hands,  as  though  convincing  himself  of  the  strength  in 
Greeny 's  thumb,  he  at  once  proposes  to  bet  that  stranger 
can  open  it.  This  wager  is  taken  with  much  confidence 
by  the  victim,  because,  since  he  has  just  tried  and  con- 
vinced himself,  he  feels  that  it  is  impossible  to  lose. 
But  the  slightest  effort  now  suffices  to  throw  the  blade 
open,  and  his  money  is,  of  course,  lost. 

These  knives,  which  are  very  common  in  appearance 
and  have  but  a  single  blade,  are  sold  at  ten  and  fifteen 
dollars  each.  The  secret  about  them  consists  in  a  small 


150  JHYSTERIES  AND  MISERIES. 

piece  of  wire,  which  runs  along  the  back-spring  and  is 
made  to  move  in  and  out  of  a  slot  cut  in  the  large  end  of 
the  knife-blade  when  shut.  There  is  a  small  projection 
of  wire  from  the  handle,  which  is  not  liable  to  detection, 
and  by  pressing  this  the  slot  is  closed  or  opened  at  will. 
These  knives  are  not  all  made  alike  ;  hence,  even  if  you 
have  discovered  the  trick  in  one,  it  is  not  safe  to  bet  you 
can  open  the  next  one. 

There  are  hundreds  of  other  tricks  not  mentioned  in 
this  chapter,  that  are  practiced  daily  in  New  York  ;  to  ex- 
plain them  all  would  require  a  work  much  greater  than 
the  contents  of  this  entire  volume. 

I  have  sought,  however,  to  present  examples  of  the 
various  means  employed  to  swindle  an  unsuspecting  pub- 
lic. It  is  not  alone  the  simple  minded  who  fall  into  such 
snares  as  are  laid  by  professional  thieves  and  confidence 
operators  ;  indeed,  many  of  New  York's  most  intelligent 
citizens  become  the  prey  of  their  fellow  townsmen. 

Quite  enough  has  been  explained  in  this  succinct  his- 
tory of  Gotham's  peccadillos  to  guide  safely  any  visitor 
through  America's  great  Metropolis  ;  let  us  hope  that  these 
lessons  may  prove  fruitful  with  blessings  and  beneficial  to 
all  mankind  ;  that  they  should  teach  us  how  slippery  are 
all  the  paths  in  large  cities,  and  that  eternal  vigilance 
must  be  the  price  of  our  securety. 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

SACRED    MEMORIES    AND  HOMELY  FACTS. 

THE  American  people  are  very  justly  proud  of  their 
sovereignty  and  of  the  beautiful  city  where  sits,  by  a  ma- 
jority's sufferance,  the  creators  of  our  law.  Hallowed 
memories  cluster  about  that  grand  old  capitol,  whose 
dome  seems  to  cleave  empyrean's  depths,  and  gather  upon 
its  apex  a  lustre  direct  from  heaven.  Every  national 
heart  pulsates  with  excited  admiration  at  the  mention  of 
those  heroes  of  constitutional  liberty,  whose  patriotic  and 
divine-born  impulses  conceived  a  magna  charta  so  com- 
prehensive and  beneficent  that  it  has  become  a  lamp  of 
liberty  lighting  all  the  by-ways  of  civilization. 

This  commendable  pride  of  citizenship  is  manifested  in 
a  hundred  ways  ;  not  alone  by  a  spontaneous  and  uni- 
versal response,  coming  like  a  rush  of  mighty  floods  from 
every  city,  hamlet,  hillside,  plain  and  canon,  at  the  first 
insult  to  our  national  honor,  but  also  by  a  generous  ac- 
ceptance and  acquiescence  in  all  the  civil  laws  bearing  the 
seal  of  jurisdictional  courts  and  legislatures. 

WASHINGTON  CITY  stands  out  like  some  great  master- 
piece of  art  on  canvas,  presenting  a  beautiful  picture  of 
animate  life  clothed  in  the  purple  of  supreme  power  and 
with  a  grasp  like  destiny  bearing  securely  the  prosperity 
of  our  country.  She  is  no  less  beautiful  in  architecture 
153 


154 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 


and  material  adornment  than  in  the  golden-hued  princi- 
ples which  radiate  from  her  capitol  and  penetrate  every 
American  home,  and  are  at  once  the  pillars  and  founda- 
tion of  our  democratic  confederacy. 


There  are  no  other  buildings  on  the  continent  so  ma- 
jestic, stable  and  awe-inspiring  as  the  State  House,  De- 
partment of  State  and  Treasury,  which  combine  symme- 
try and  substantiality  with  marvellous  ingenuity.  The 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  155 

White  House  is  a  sacred  relic  of  Colonial  legislation,  that 
has  sheltered  all  the  Presidents  and  been  the  theatre  of 
so  many  brilliant  receptions  and  painful  scenes. 

It  appears  almost  iconoclastic  to  associate  grim  facts 
of  moral  perversions  with  the  constellation  of  sublime 
geniuses  who  have  been  such  gracious  factors  in  our  political 
commonwealth  sisterhood ;  but  for  the  precedent  estab- 
lished by  sacred  revelations,  I  would  not  undertake  this 
review  of  Washington  life  without  some  mental  com- 
punction, since  it  involves  the  character  of  many  able 
legislators  and  some  of  our  Capital's  aristocratic  and 
peculiar  society.  Sustained  by  sacred  example,  however, 
I  assume  the  task  with  a  feeling  of  justification,  if  not 
praiseworthy  duty. 

To  our  provincial  population  official  life  appears  all 
tinsel  and  glory,  the  reaping  of  ambition's  goal,  which 
-exaggerates  merit  ^id  makes  national  officers  akin  to 
sacredness.  The  congressman  who,  laden  with  the 
laurels  of  constituent  preferment,  returns  to  his  rural 
district,  either  during  vacation  or  for  another  canvass, 
excites  almost  as  much  interest  among  his  people  as  a 
brass-band  or  circus-menagerie.  The  very  folds  of  his 
garments  are  touched  with  the  awe  that  is  inspired  by  a 
belief  in  their  miraculous  efficacy.  He  rises  above  the 
village  pastor,  and  his  judgment  approaches  infallibility. 
Every  act  becomes  a  subject  worthy  of  press  comment, 
and  should  some  trifling  illness  admonish  him  to  with- 
draw from  public  gaze  for  a  day,  his  condition  is  bulle- 
tined on  every  neighbor's  tongue.  He  is  a  connoisseur, 
an  incomparable  critic  of  bric-a-brac,  when  it  assumes  the 
guise  of  pumpkin  pies,  buttermilk,  babies  or  cross-roads 
whiskey,  and  his  praise  of  this  quartette  falls  on  the  heads 
of  rustic  housewives  with  the  potency  and  delight  excited 
in  a  devout  Catholic  by  the  blessings  of  a  Pope.  His 


156  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

speeches,  which  are  printed  by  a  bounteous  government 
and  distributed  through  the  generous  sources  of  a  frank- 
ing privilege,  pour  in  upon  his  constituents,  who  read  his 
remarks  on  a  bill  appropriating  blank  dollars  for  the  im- 
provement of  Wild  Cat  creek,  as  though  every  word  were 
a  pearl,  and  his  argument  absolutely  unanswerable. 
Forthwith  a  fulsome  biography,  laden  with  flattery  and  in- 
terlarded with  prophecy,  appears  in  his  "  deestrict"  papers, 
and  then  he  floats  in  a  very  sea  of  ecstacy,  where  adula- 
tion, like  a  steady  wind,  blows  directly  toward  ambition's 
harbor.  This  picture  is  complete,  before  the  eye  of 
bucolic  imagery,  when  our  Congressman  is  seen  occupy- 
ing a  stateman's  seat,  where  none  obtain  privileges  until 
their  qualifications  are  determined  by  a  critical  examina- 
tion before  the  high  chancellor  of  all  knowledge  and 
holiness. 

To  those  who  have  studied  and  know  Washington  life 
when  clothed  in  official  robes,  the  average  congressman 
is  but  an  ordinary  creature,  with  many  deficiencies.  His 
speeches  are  usually  the  product  of  some  journalist  or 
penny-a-liner  whom  he  pays  for  the  composition ;  they 
may,  indeed,  remain  unspoken,  yet  this  does  not  prevent 
them  from  appearing  in  the  Congressional  Record  as 
having  been  delivered,  and  interjected,  too,  with  "ap- 
plause," "hear,  hear,"  "laughter,"  etc.  It  is  a  notori- 
ous fact  that  scarcely  one-half  the  speeches  printed  in  the 
Record  as  having  been  uttered  "amid  storms  of  thun- 
dering applause,"  were  spoken  in  Congress  or  elsewhere, 
yet  they  are  printed  in  pamphlet  form  at  government  ex- 
pense and  distributed  in  like  manner  over  respective  dis- 
tricts, where  they  are  accepted  as  evidences  of  great  merit. 
I  do  not  write  this  in  disparagement  of  all  congressmen 
from  country  constituencies,  for  the  fact  is  incontrovert- 
ible that,  taking  Congress  as  a  body,  there  are  more  able 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  157 

members  representing  rural  districts  than  large  municipal- 
ities, which  is  explained  in  the  methods  employed  by  city 
candidates  to  secure  election. 

Through  the  system  that  has  obtained  since  the  war,  it 
is  next  to  impossible  for  an  honest  man  to  become  a  gov- 
ernment official ;  it  would  be  alike  absurd  and  vicious  to 
brand  every  national  officer  as  a  culprit,  for  there  are 
many  men,  legislators  and  departmental  officers,  who  are 
regarded  as  undefiLible,  and  who,  perhaps,  do  lead  pure 
lives,  but  they  are  the  exception,  however  we  may  regard 
the  confession.  No  one  will  deny  that  successful  office 
seekers  practice  a  system  of  false  promises,  and  that  they 
indirectly  purchase  votes.  In  the  country  there  is  much 
less  corruption  used,  because  the  opportunities  are  not 
nearly  so  great,  though  enough  is  seen  to  shame  any  true 
patriot.  Nominating  conventions  are  almost  invariably 
"packed,"  i.  e.,  the  delegates  are  influenced  in  favor  of 
candidates  by  promises  of  position,  or  directly  by  the 
payment  of  money — bribed. 

The  city  candidate  commences  his  canvass  by  contri- 
buting to  ward  meetings,  leaving  sums  of  money  at  sa- 
loons, hiring  strikers,  and  concludes  his  efforts,  after 
nomination,  by  buying  squads  of  voters  and  "whooping 
up  the  boys."  In  cities  the  voting  is  done  by  sluggers 
and  roughs,  who  compose  the  saloon  influence ;  these 
hoodlums  fight  for  their  candidates  and  rarely  give  up 
until  the  ballot-boxes  are  stuffed  with  legitimate  and  ille- 
gitimate votes.  Decent  people  cannot  afford  to  mix  with 
such  motley  crowds  as  congregate  at  the  polls,  and  elec- 
tions are  therefore  subject  to  the  predominance  of  vicious, 
criminal  classes.  Since  this  demoralizing  influence  is  to 
be  found  in  all  cities,  and,  more  or  less  in  counties,  too, 
dishonest  representatives  must  be  the  consequence.  These 
practices  being  well  near  universal ,  their  criminality  is  not 


158  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

regarded,  and  the  polluting  influence  is^  permitted  to  ex- 
tend through  all  the  avenues  of  official  life. 

In  elections  for  United  States  Senators  corruption  is 
infinitely  greater.  The  legislature  is  purchased  outright 
in  nine  out  of  every  ten  cases  where  the  personal  influence 
of  opposing  candidates  is  about  equal  —  the  longest  and 
most  generous  purse  nearly  always  decides  the  contest. 
Any  denial  of  this  assertion  is  a  betrayal  of  the  most 
lamentable  and  inexcusable  ignorance. 

But  political  evils  do  not  cease  with  elections ;  on  the 
other  hand,  they  are  but  the  bud  that  blossoms  into  more 
infamous  practices  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  Times  have 
grown  strangely  out  of  joint ;  formerly,  during  the  first 
years  of  allodial  tenures  in  England,  when  feudal  titles 
were  abolished,  attorneys  practiced  their  profession  without 
exacting  fees  from  their  clients,  esteeming  themselves 
well  paid  in  the  honor  they  received;  thirty  years  ago, 
in  America,  office  was  sought  for  the  honor  such  positions 
yielded,  but  since  the  English-speaking  world  has  made 
such  advances  in  civilization,  the  code  of  fame  has  been 
revised.  British  legislators  and  expounders  now  turn  all 
their  talents  to  money-gathering  by  political  chicanery. 
Following  their  example,  and  borrowing  practical  politi- 
cal precepts  from  those  of  the  woolsack  and  peruke,  our 
progressive  national  officers  have  sought  distinction 
through  the  same  channels ;  and,  barring  the  privileges 
of  hereditary  rulers,  Americans  have  eclipsed  most  of  the 
modern  nations  in  devising  adroit  schemes  for  aggrandize- 
ment and  pelf. 

Occasionally  our  naturally  excitable  people  are  tempo- 
rarily amazed  at  the  chromatic  acts  of  some  newly  intro- 
duced congressman,  who  rises  by  inherent  genius  and 
scatters  in  his  track  bright  gems  of  statesmanship,  but 
more  than  one  of  these  proves  but  a  flying  meteor  draw- 


WASHINGTON  CITY,  159 

ing  the  admiration  of  gallery  sirens  for  a  while,  only  at 
last  "  to  die  of  a  rose  in  aromatic  pain."  Some  of  these 
stars  to  lesser  lights  gain  credit  for  their  honesty,  to  lose 
it  at  last  by  unseemly  efforts  for  political  revenge  ;  oth- 
ers, with  pachydermatous  skins  and  consciences,  make 
themselves  amenable  to  public  execration,  but  stolidly  con- 
front calumny  and  receive  the  darts  of  condemnation  with- 
out apparent  knowledge  of  the  infliction.  For  such  as 
these  there  is  a  sure  reward  ;  chief  politicians  are  always 
seeking  aid  from  those  who  defy  public  opinion,  for  they 
make  excellent  breast-plates  and  can  keep  a  secret  to  the 
end.  If  they  are  bull-dozers,  so  much  the  better,  for  in 
these  adjuncts  of  a  corrupt  ballot  is  a  reliance  most  po- 
tential and  assuring.  For  such  particular  services  these 
political  lepers  receive  fat  appointments  when  loss  of 
popularity  destroys  all  hope  of  their  election.  I  have  in 
my  mind,  as  I  write,  no  less  than  fifteen  high-place  offi- 
cials who  are  serving  under  appointment  because  their 
dishonesty  and  incompetency  are  so  well  known  that  no 
constituency  would  elect  them  to  any  position.  The  ap- 
pointive power  is  not  always  to  blame  for  this  deficiency  ; 
in  fact  the  person  wielding  this  power  rarely  has  the  op- 
portunity for  ascertaining  the  personal  character  of  his 
appointees  ;  he  is  the  creature  of  those  who  secure  him 
place,  and  he  must  select  those  whom  he  is  instructed  to 
give  office,  without  regard  for  his  own  wishes. 

Ambition's  race  is  indeed  a  mad  one,  and  not  infre- 
quently does  it  lead  to  oblivion.  Men  in  office  are  as- 
sailed by  many  temptations,  money,  women  and  promises 
of  exaltation  ;  going  into  office  under  circumstances  such 
as  I  have  mentioned,  it  is  not  strange  that  a  large  ma- 
jority take  up  the  corruption  first  practiced  in  a  canvass 
for  votes  and  pursue  it  as  a  habit  to  the  end  of  their 
career. 


160  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


CHAPTER  II. 

WASHINGTON    SOCIETY. 

THERE  is  a  marked  difference,  readily  recognizable,  be- 
tween the  society  of  Washington  and  that  of  New  York, 
especially  in  composition.  There  is  pre-eminently  more 
intelligence  and  polish  in  that  of  the  former  city,  for 
several  reasons,  but  chiefly  because  of  the  widely  differ- 
ent surroundings.  New  York  elite  is  made  up  largely  of 
people  sprung  suddenly  from  low  condition  by  a  turn  of 
fortune's  wheel.  Riches  constitute  the  sole  passport  to 
that  exclusive  circle  known  as  aristocratic  society,  and 
where  such  an  ill-jointed  custom  prevails,  culture  meets 
with  small  consideration. 

But  in  Washington  there  is  a  diametrically  opposite 
social  condition,  though  the  results  and  practices  of  each 
are  alike  demoralizing.  Society  at  the  Capital  is  made 
up  of  those  who  have  attained  to  positions  of  political 
preferment  by  virtue  of  their  influence,  which  is  the  pro- 
duct of  intellectual  predominance.  In  such  a  circle  there 
is  positive  enjoyment,  for  intelligence  is  like  a  festal 
board  at  which  all  may  be  regaled.  The  elements  con- 
stituting what  may  be  termed  our  "National  Sodality," 
are  congressmen,  heads  of  departments,  juntos  of 
lobbyists,  and  an  olla  podrido  of  women,  only  definable 
under  the  general  phrase,  "of  all  complexions  and 
antecedents." 

A  woman's  ambition,  socially,  can  only  be  measured 
by  her  imagination,  and  as  the  air  of  Washington  is  filled 
voracious  parasites  of  covetousjiess,  every  little  soul 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  161 

there  becomes  affected,  and  the  place  is  perforce  a  very 
pothouse  for  mad  ambition's  folly.  Ninety-nine  out  of 
every  hundred  are  rolling  the  stone  of  Sisyphus,  or  at 
sea  without  sail  or  compass.  Fraud  and  dissimulation 
are  practiced  with  rare  pertinacity,  and  these  foibles  per- 
meate the  entire  body  social. 

During  vacation  of  Congress  the  Capital  is  lifeless  as 
an  eunuch  under  the  beams  of  tropical  heat,  but  when 
winter  calls  together  the  horde  of  officers  and  applicants 
who  stream  behind  like  pungent  odors  resisting  fumiga- 
tion, a  change  succeeds,  and  under  the  tonicity  of  this 
infusion  Washington  grows  as  strong  in  her  loins  as 
Antoeus,  throbbing  with  desire.  Society,  mottled  as  a 
leopard,  at  once  organizes  into  coteries  and  designing 
cliques,  posts  the  guards,  pulls  up  the  portcullis,  and  then 
plunges  into  dissipations  patterned  after  Belshazzar's  feast. 

To-night  there  is  a  party  or  reception  at  Plenipoten- 
tiary Blank's  residence,  to  which  is  invited  all  of  the 
Capital's  aristocrats,  blooded  stock  representing  foreign 
courts,  bejeweled  spouses  of  senators,  secretaries,  com- 
missioners and  queens  of  the  State  House  galleries.  It 
is  a  fashionable  delegation  and  rare  sport  may  confi- 
dently be  expected.  As  the  guests  arrive  they  are  re- 
ceived first  by  darkies  in  au  fait  livery,  who  take  charge 
of  cloaks,  overcoats,  hats — and  suspicious  bottles.  Other 
attendants  conduct  the  company  to  parlors  ablaze  with 
emprismed  chandeliers,  where  they  are  met  and  presented 
to  the  distinguished  host  and  his  gorgeously  arrayed  lady. 
A  flutter  of  dresses  and  the  senseless  din  of  distrait  con- 
versation is  heard  until  a  swell  of  music  wells  up  from 
the  ball-room  ;  then  progammes  are  hastily  produced,  a 
gracefully  oiled  citizen  of  latter-day  suffrage  calls  out, 
"Choose  your  partners  for  a  waltz/'  when  there  is  a 
hasty  vacation  of  parlors,  and  the  dance  begins. 
11 


162  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

Now  let  us  take  observations  by  bird's-eye  view  from 
an  eligible  balcony  or  pedestal : 

That  frosty-headed,  red-faced  old  fellow,  who  dances 

with  such  animation,  is  Senator ,  who  has  made  great 

reputation  by  advocating  a  reform  of  the  tariff;  his 
speeches  always  attract  marked  attention  from  the  gal- 
leries ;  his  wife  is  not  spending  the  winter  in  Washing- 
ton, preferring  to  live  a  quiet  life  at  their  country  home, 
which  decision  is  quite  agreeable  to  the  senator,  as  we 
»hall  see.  Isn't  his  partner  beautiful?  Why,  she  dresses 
a  divine  form  with  the  grace  such  perfect  mould  deserves. 
Her  smile  is  sweeter  than  a  siren's  lute,  and  the  measure 
of  her  step  is  as  infectious  as  the  jig-creating  melodies  of 
an  expert  negro  banjoist.  How  entrancingly  she  looks 
up  into  the  senator's  red  face;  the  beams  of  her  lovely 
eyes  strike  wrinkles  of  admiration  all  over  the  old  gentle- 
man's countenance.  By  careful  notice  we  may  see  him 
squeeze  her  waist  with  one  arm,  but  the  most  expert 
mathematician  could  not  tell  which  of  the  two  holds  the 
tightest  grip  with  their  linked  hands. 

This  woman  has  the  senator  in  her  grasp  ;  what  will  she 
do  with  him?  Her  character  affords  the  best  answer. 
Two  years  ago  she  was  an  adventuress  among  Wall  street 
nabobs  ;  she  made  some  money  by  selling  her  charms  to 
6 < bulls"  and  "  bears"  for  " pointers"  on  the  stock 
market.  Promiscuity  soon  drove  her  out  of  speculation, 
biri,  having  great  resource  she  fell  in  with  a  rich  Calif  or- 
nian,  who  took  her  to  San  Francisco.  There  she  was  a 
"high  roller,"  and  by  keeping  a  sharp  lookout  for  the 
main  chance  she  finally  "  struck  it  rich."  A  coast  mil- 
lionaire, with  visions  of  transcontinental  railways  in  his 
head,  concluded  that  he  could  use  her  with  advantage  at 
Washington.  He  accordingly  made  her  a  tempting  and 
acceptable  offer,  after  which  he  had  a  bill  drafted  appro- 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


163 


priating  millions  of  public  lands  to  a  construction  com- 
pany, of  which  he  was  the  soul,  body  and  members,  to 
assist  in  the  building  of  a  railroad,  projected  in  his  brain. 
This  woman  is  a  professional  lobbyist  now,  and  if  she 
succeeds  in  having  the  bill  passed  $50,000  will  be  her  re- 


THE  FEMALE  LOBBYIST  PLYING  HER  SEDUCTIVE  ARTS. 

ward.  She  tackles  our  venerable  senator,  because  he  has 
made  several  speeches  against  the  appropriation  of  any 
part  of  the  public  domain  to  advance  individual  interests. 
His  influence,  therefore,  in  advocacy  of  her  bill,  will  an- 
ticipate all  opposition  and  insure  an  early  passage  of  her 
measure, 


164  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

But  the  full  effects  of  her  insinuating  grace  and  mag- 
netism is  not  so  protential  at  the  ball  room  as  in  her  bou- 
doir ;  for  there,  under  the  magic  of  nature's  touch,  what- 
ever may  be  the  senator's  misgivings  and  compunctions 
he  will  swear  allegiance  with  the  impassioned  eloquence 
of  the  sweetest  lover. 

That  lady,  waltzing  now  with  Minister ,  is  a  de- 
butante in  Washington  society.  She  passes  for  a  young 
widow,  the  remnant  of  a  General  who  fell  at  Gettysburg, 
and  left  papers  that  warrant  her  application  for  a  liberal 
pension.  She  is,  in  fact,  an  adventuress,  who  has  been 
peddling  virtue  among  wealthy  cuckolds,  and  has  been 
drawn  to  Washington  because  her  profession  can  be  prac- 
ticed with  greater  profit  there  than  elsewhere .  She  brought 
ten  Saratoga  trunks  filled  with  rich  wardrobes,  and  has 
taken  quarters  on  I  street,  where  her  interests  are  under 
the  watchful  eye  of  an  amorous  foreign  representative. 

There,  trellising  the  outer  circle  and  executing  most 

complacent  devoirs  to  Secretary  's  wife,  is  a  very 

clever-looking  gentleman — a  high  court  appointee — who 
stands  on  the  pinnacle  of  super-sesthetical  society  in 
Washington.  Ladies  smile  graciously  at  his  nod,  and 
being  a  bachelor,  it  is  a  perpetual  leap-year  with  him. 
His  character,  however,  is  not  above  reproach.  Though 
never  married,  he  has  a  daughter  almost  of  age,  who  is 
admitted  to  the  best  circles,  and  no  questions  asked.  His 
career  at  the  Capital  is  best  known  to  the  habitues  of 
Lizzie  Snow's  harem. 

Thus  could  I  truthfully  paint  the  blemishes  of  two- 
thirds  of  this  gay  assemblage.  When  midnight  folds  the 
scroll  of  deep  shadows,  there  is  a  marked  change  in  those 
who  have  participated  in  the  dance  ;  many  now  retire  to 
their  homes — chiefly  those  of  mature  years— while  the 
remaining  ones  drink  wine  and  give  free  rein  to  their 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  165 

excited  passions.  The  waltz  grows  suddenly  animated, 
while  grace  of  movement  is  displayed  by  catching  kisses 
from  pouting  lips  of  partners  as  they  furiously  twirl  in 
the  lascivious  dance. 

It  cannot  be  asserted  that  all  those  who  are  pronounced 
votaries  of  terpsichore  and  Washington's  le  beau  monde, 
are  guilty  of  improprieties  beyond  a  license  which; 
though  objectionable  elsewhere,  is  permissible  there. 
But  the  fact  is  notorious  that  during  sessions  of  Congress 
society  at  the  Capital  is  little  less  than  a  carnival  of  vice. 
None  can  escape  the  contaminating  influence  of  corrup- 
tion, and  in  the  congregation  of  such  a  large  and  mixed 
delegation  of  men  and  women  the  demands  for  money 
are  imperious,  and  to  obtain  that  leverage  on  society 
positions,  honor,  soul,  everything  is  bartered. 

The  causes  and  effects  of  official  life  will  appear  fully 
in  succeeding  chapters,  which  contain  only  a  few  selec- 
tions from  common  report,  illustrative  of  the  cankerous 
assuefaction  prevalent  in  that  circle  which  should  be 
representative  American,  but  which,  we  are  thankful  to 
record,  is  not. 


CHAPTEE  in. 

OFFICE-SEEKERS WASHINGTON  SCANDALS . 

No  description,  however  graceful  and  comprehensive, 
can  afford  more  than  an  indistinct  idea  of  the  pressure 
exerted  by  office-seekers  to  obtain  positions.  It  is  like 
the  rush  of  water  through  a  crevasse,  or  the  mad  stream 


166  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

of  Greeks  pouring  into  Troy,  when,  with  broken  walls, 
the  city  gave  admittance  to  a  wooden  horse.  There  are 
about  eighty  thousand  offices  under  the  general  government, 
nearly  all  of  which  are  filled  by  influence  at  Washing- 
ton. To  secure  these,  the  Capital  is  demoralized  by  a  Sab- 
aoth  more  numerous  than  the  Amorites  who  fell  by 
Joshua's  spear — and  who  are  about  as  deserving  of  slaugh- 
ter. It  is  not  alone  men  that  seek  these  positions,  for 
there  are  women  also  in  superabundance  who  frequently 
visit  Washington  under  flattering  inducements,  and  leave 
their  jewels  of  character  in  the  keeping  of  influential 
office-holders  before  they  secure  a  clerkship.  Among 
such  a  vast  number  of  hungry  seekers  there  must,  of 
necessity,  be  a  large  amount  of  bitter  experiences.  Not 
to  be  repulsed,  and  hanging  by  the  merest  thread  of  hope, 
many  continue  a  vain  pursuit  until  money  and  influence 
are  wholly  exhausted.  Unable  then  to  leave  the  city, 
these  poor  unfortunates  remain,  until,  in  numerous  in- 
stances, manhood  and  womanhood  are  destroyed.  Fe- 
males are  drawn  to  the  Capital  by  various  inducements  ; 
some  by  direct  promise  of  place  ;  others  by  ambition  and 
an  exaggerated  opinion  of  their  ability,  while  yet  others 
are  influenced  by  vanity — faith  in  the  success  of  a  pretty 
face  and  exquisite  form.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  very  few 
of  the  really  handsome,  well-developed  female  applicants 
fail  to  procure  desirable  positions,  provided  they  are  will- 
ing to  part  with  those  charms  which,  while  they  cannot 
enrich  the  receiver,  strike  the  giver  with  direst  poverty. 
There  are  four  thousand  women  employed  in  the  vari- 
ous departments  at  Washington,  nearly  two  thousand  of 
which  number  are  engaged  in  the  Bureau  of  Printing 
and  Engraving.  Admirers  of  female  beauty  can  find  here 
much  satisfaction  and  enjoyment,  for  nearly  all  these 
employes  are  both  young  and  handsome.  They  bear  evi- 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  167 

dence  of  having  been  selected  from  a  large  offering  of 
girls,  the  qualifications  for  acceptance  being  face,  form 
and  magnetism.  The  visitor  to  these  houris  in  aprons 
and  work-caps,  if  he  chance  to  be  attractive  himself,  will 
meet  many  glances  indicative  of  a  desire  for  acquaint- 
anceship. A  wire  partition,  however,  intervenes  between 
visitors  and  employes,  which  bars  everything  save  smiles 
and  cunning  innuendoes. 

These  girls  may  all  be  honest ;  I  would  not  traduce 
them  for  any  price,  and  therefore  merely  mention  facts, 
leaving  inferences  with  the  reader.  It  is  perfectly  legiti- 
mate to  say  that  some  of  these  girls  owe  their  position 
to  an  influence  that  demands  a  sacrifice  of  honor,  while 
others  sometimes  succeed  through  virtue  of  parentage,  or 
because  they  are  the  orphans  of  once  prominent  soldiers, 
or  relatives  of  influential  politicians. 

To  be  somewhat  more  particular  in  my  charges  of 
salacity  against  the  social  and  official  elements  composing 
Washington  life,  I  will  briefly  describe  a  few  facts.  It 
is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  refrain  from  an  open  publication 
of  names,  but  I  solemnly  affirm  that  none  of  these  de- 
scriptions shall  be  overdrawn,  and  that  they  shall  be  the 
record  of  solemn  facts  and  actual  circumstances.  The 
mere  mention  of  such  truths  is  almost  shocking,  but  jus- 
tice and  patriotism  alike  demand  that  the  shameful  abuses 
of  public  trusts  and  Capital  society  shall  be  made  known. 
The  public  has  a  right  to  know  the  occupation  of  its  ser- 
vants, for  only  by  this  knowledge  and  the  adoption  of 
some  means  to  purify  legislators  and  their  surroundings 
can  the  national  fabric  be  preserved. 

The  assignation  houses  of  Washington  are  sustained  al- 
most wholly  by  members  of  the  two  houses  of  Congress. 
The  principal  ones  are  located  on  New  York  avenue,  the 
finest  being  presided  over  by  Mme.  Russell,  an  ex-lobby 


168  MYSTERIES  AND  MISERIES. 

queen.  A  certain  very  dignified  senator  representing  one 
of  New  England's  fairest  commonwealths  is  a  very  lucra* 
tive  patron  of  this  place,  and  invariably  upon  the  session 
adjournment  he  remains  secluded  with  the  fair  habitues 
for  nearly  a  fortnight.  He  is  a  married  gentleman,  with 
a  sprinkling  of  grey  hairs  that  give  color  of  sapience,  but 
lusts  of  the  flesh  have  made  him  a  victim  to  sensuality. 

A  certain  member  of  Congress  from  Ohio,  and 
an  attache  of  the  White  House  under  the  Grant  and 
Hayes  administrations,  maintained  sumptuous  quarters  in 
the  northwest  part  of  Washington  which  became  a  harem 
rich  with  famous  beauties.  One  of  these  gentlemen  bore 
about  him  the  reputation  which  won  hearts  as  if  by 
magic.  His  elegant  form  and  carriage,  large,  black 
mustache,  imperial  locks  and  lustrous  dark  eyes  pro- 
claimed him  Hyperion  to  the  ladies,  and  his  conquests 
were  not  only  numerous  but  included  the  ultra-fashion- 
ables. Daughters  of  high  officers,  and  many  wives  who 
had  entree  to  the  Presidents'  families,  became  victims  of 
this  high-cut  Adonis,  who  fairly  luxuriated  in  bountiful 
meadows  and  special  preserves.  By  the  most  notorious 
flagrancy, — downright  drunkenness — there  were  two  or 
three  exposures,  but  the  ladies  whose  honor  was  involved 
occupied  too  high  positions  for  the  scandals  to  penetrate 
the  public  prints  ;  Washington  society  knew  of  these  pec- 
cadillos, but  that  section  of  the  body  social  was  too  deep 
in  mire  to  think  of  getting  out  by  crowding  others  under. 
In  fact,  the  only  reprehensible  thing  discoverable  about 
these  amours  was  in  being  found  out  outside  the  circle. 

There  is  employed  in  the  collection  division  of  the  post- 
office  department,  as  clerk,  a  very  pretty  lady,  who  sus- 
tains a  consanguineous  relation  to  one  of  the  highest 
officers  in  that  department,  as  well  as  a  relation  sur- 
reptitious to  an  officer  only  one  degree  less  in  rank. 


'WASHINGTON  CITY, 


170  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

The  office  of  this  latter  gentleman  was  in  the  Seventh 
street  wing,  immediately  opposite  the  Second  National 
Bank.  During  lunch  time  two  of  the  bank  clerks 
took  their  meals  in  a  corner  room  on  the  second  floor, 
from  which  place  an  excellent  view  could  be  had, 
over  the  stained  glass  of  the  Major's  office.  On 
one  occasion  they  chanced  to  see  a  lady  and  gentle- 
man occupying  the  Major's  quarters  alone.  A  more 
critical  observation  revealed  to  the  blossoming  eyes  of 
these  two  clerks  some  punctillious  actions,  sestheti- 
cal  customs,  and  parenthetical  dalliances  which  made 
them  instantly  turn  their  faces  to  the  wall.  But  recover- 
ing their  equanimity  at  length  they  essayed  a  second 
view,  when,  behold  !  there  was  the  same  display  of  deli- 
cate, fastidious,  queasy,  querulous,  rhapsodizing  playful- 
ness before  noticeable.  Nothing  more. 

Thereafter  the  two  clerks,  treasuring  their  discovery 
with  great  care,  grew  less  modest,  and  whiled  their  din- 
ner hours  in  anxious  audience  with  the  officer  and  his 
beautiful  young  clerk.  A  culmination  of  such  love- 
making  was  at  length  reached,  which  provoked  a  jealousy 
that  sought  satisfaction  by  exposure.  Charges  of  las- 
civious intercourse  were  duly  preferred,  which  are  now 
the  subject  of  an  investigation  by  officials — but  nothing 
will  come  of  it. 


Some  time  in  June,  1881,  one  of  the  wealthiest  gentle- 
men of  Washington  gave  a  grand  reception,  which  was 
attended  by  President  Garfield,  his  cabinet  and  a  "large 
number  of  other  prominent  people,  besides  a  score  of 
foreign  ministers.  Among  the  guests  was  a  Spanish 
diplomat,  whose  handsome  features  attracted  marked  at- 
tention from  all  the  ladies  present,  but  particularly  fas- 
cinated was  a  daughter  of  the  wealthy  host.  She  was 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  171 

only  eighteen  years  of  age,  but  few  stood  higher  in  social 
circles  than  she  ;  thousands  of  dollars  had  been  spent  on 
her  musical  culture,  and  for  beauty,  combined  with  be- 
fitting grace  of  manners,  none  of  the  Washington  belles 
excelled  her. 

The  reception  was  over  about  midnight,  but  when 
nearly  all  the  guests  had  departed  the  Spanish  diplomat 
sought  Miss  ,  to  say  good-night.  The  girl,  fas- 
cinated by  his  magnetic  looks  and  distinguished  lineage, 
met  him  with  trembling  lips  and  fluttering  heart,  which 
revealed  how  deep  the  dart  of  love  had  cleft  her.  He 
instantly  discovered  the  flame  that  burnt  for  him,  and 
made  an  engagement  to  meet  her  one  hour  afterwards  in 
her  toilet  room.  She  consented,  scarcely  conscious  of 
her  act,  and  at  the  time  appointed  admitted  to  her  cham- 
ber the  Castilian  lo'ver.  He  carried  wine  with  him,  and 
under  watches  the  two  drank  draughts  of  a  vintage  which 
seemed  an  elixir  of  love  ;  visions  of  Paradise  dawned  like 
airy  fairies  before  her  sparkling  eyes,  and  when  the  soft 
pressure  of  an  arm  was  felt  about  her  waist,  it  was  as  a 
circlet  of  rapture — she  was  entranced. 

The  result  of  that  evening — stolen  pleasures  where 
thorns  so  sharp  are  hidden ;  a  joy  that  breaks  the  silver 
clouds  and  draws  lightning  from  an  inviting  heaven — it 
was  the  old,  old  story,  with  the  usual  bitter  sequel.  Three 
months  afterward  nature  exposed  the  secrets  of  that 
night,  and  to  keep  the  wolf  of  disgrace  from  her  parents* 
door,  she  was  sent  abroad  "for  her  health."  Compara- 
tively few  persons  in  Washington  are  f amiliar  with  the 
circumstances  of  this  particular  case,  but  the  truth  has 
not  been  transgressed  one  jot  or  tittle  in  this  description. 

During  a  recent  administration  a  scandal  was  provoked 
which,  though  it  shocked  society  to  ail  immeasurable 


172  MYSTERIES  AND  MISERIES. 

extent,  did  not  disconcert  the  immediate  parties  thereto. 
The  lady  concerned,  by  general  consent,  was  accorded 
the  honor  of  being  the  handsomest  woman  in  Washing- 
ton. She  was  wife  to  a  distinguished  Cabinet  officer, 
and  her  wardrobe  was  so  rich  and  pre-eminently  stylish, 
that  she  was  a  very  Pompadour  leader  in  fashion.  Bonds 
of  matrimony  were  not  so  binding  but  that  she  found 
means  to  exhibit  a  desire  for  the  company  of  others  than 
her  husband,  and  this  license  resulted  in  winning  an 
amorous  glance  from  a  distinguished  senator,  whose  name 
is  now  prominently  connected  with  the  Presidency  for 
1884. 

Not  content  with  opportunities  found  in  Washington, 
this  beautiful  woman  and  influential  senator  left  America 
and  made  a  tour  of  Europe  together.  How  they  traveled 
the  public  does  not  know,  but  as  no  objection  was  man- 
ifested by  the  husband,  insinuation  is  entirely  out  of 
place.  In  fact  suspicion  would  be  wholly  disarmed  in 
this  case  were  it  not  for  the  intrusive  fact  that  previous 
to  their  trip  abroad  the  senator  and  uxorious  beauty  were 
coupled  together  reproachfully  by  the  tongue  of  common 
report.  This  latter  act,  therefore,  elicited  a  comment 
extremely  palatable  to  sensation  lovers  inside  and  outside 
of  Washington.  . 

In  the  spring  of  1880  a  terrible  eruption  occurred  in 
Capital  society,  which  blew  up  a  quantity  of  old  debris 
in  the  shape  of  a  shocking  scandal.  At  the  time  this  dis- 
tressing incident  took  place,  a  Southern  district  was  rep- 
resented in  Congress  by  the  youthful  member,  A . 

He  was  in  every  respect  a  lady's  man ;  symmetrical  in 
form,  with  handsome  features  and  attractive  ways,  but 
carrying  in  his  veins  the  passions  engendered  by  tropical 
calidity,  no  barrier  was  high  enough  to  keep  him  out  of 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  173 

pastures  fruitful  with  opportunity.  He  roamed  and 
feasted  his  erratic  appetite  in  brown-stone  mansions  and 
turned  the  key  in  many  a  lock  that  held  a  sacred  door. 

At  length  this  son  of  Venus  became  acquainted  with  a 
very  estimable  lady,  the  sister-in-law  of  a  metropolitan 
congressman.  She  had  come  to  Washington  as  a  winter 
visitor,  and  possessing  the  requisite  qualifications  for 
admission  into  high-toned  society,  she  soon  became  the 
object  of  a  social  rage.  Among  the  several  who  bowed  a 
knee  at  her  shrine  was  our  caloric  M.  C.  He  had  found 
her  beautiful,  and  above  all,  the  possessor  of  a  form  as 
fine  as  Hebe  ever  wore.  Here  was  prey  worthy  his  gun- 
powder ;  so  immediately  adapting  himself  to  circumstances, 
he  adjusted  his  guns  for  a  heavy  siege  and  turned  loose  all 
his  batteries.  The  young  lady  showed  signs  of  capitula- 
tion, but  not  an  unconditional  surrender.  She  was  will- 
ing to  wed,  but  refused  any  dishonorable  alliance.  After 
adopting  several  expedients  without  avail,  determined 
not  to  be  outdone  while  wearing  the  laurels  of  so  many 
similar  victories,  he  tried  a  bolder  scheme,  which  in 
measure  and  effect  was  as  follows  :  One  night,  after  the 
theatre,  he  invited  her  to  Welcker's  restaurant  for  a 
supper.  She  accepted,  and  at  his  solicitation,  had  their 
service  together  in  a  private  wine-room.  The  simple 
repast  was  concluded,  there  being  a  great  deal  more 
wine  consumed  than  substantial  viands.  Thinking  at 

o 

length  that  the  intoxicant  had  produced  effects  suited  to 
his  purposes,  he  renewed  his  repulsive  solicitations  ;  but 
instead  of  receiving  smiles  and  kisses,  he  had  threats  and 
discomfiture.  Determining  upon  a  last  resort,  being 
maddened  by  the  overpowering  potentiality  of  his  pas- 
sions, he  attempted  violence.  *The  lady,  to  save  her 
honor,  screamed  lustily,  which  brought  assistance,  and 
being  now  freed  from  her  lecherous  escort,  she  weat 


174  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

home  without  company.  Our  impulsive  M.  G.  declared 
he  had  made  no  ungenerous  attempt  upon  the  lady,  and 
that  her  screams  were  but  the  result  of  a  hysteria  to 
which  she  was  subject.  Anxious  to  avoid  notoriety, 
there  was  no  attempt  made  by  the  lady's  friends  to 
prosecute  the  congressman,  and  thus  he  escaped  public 
execration  because  comparatively  few  were  acquainted 
with  the  circumstances. 


It  is  generally  known  that  a  certain  cabinet  officer  who 
was  nominated  by  the  President  for  a  place  on  the  su- 
preme bench,  was  rejected  by  the  Senate  because  of  the 
notorious  reputation  which  his  wife  bore  in  Washington. 
This  woman  was,  nevertheless,  a  reigning  belle  in  Capital 
society,  and  belonged  to  the  presidential  wing  of  favor- 
ites ;  her  beauty  was  confessed  and  the  toilets  she  wore 
set  the  prevailing  fashions.  Though  her  husband  was 
defeated  in  his  high  judicial  aspirations,  he  continued  to 
hold  an  exalted  place  in  national  council,  and  his  wife  re- 
mained a  Washington  favorite  until  the  close  of  Gen. 
Grant' s  administration . 

The  following  outre  story  is  told  by  an  ex-senator  from 
Kansas,  who  served  two  terms  in  the  upper  house  with 
much  distinction,  in  which  time  he  made  a  reputation  that 
will  not  soon  die  out : 

"  One  Sunday  evening  business  called  me  to  visit  Gen. 

,  (a  gentleman  who  is  very  wealthy,  and  one  of  the 

most  influential  citizens  of  Washington.)  I  reached  his 
residence  about  8,  p.  M.,  and  upon  being  ushered  into  the 
parlor  by  one  of  his  daughters,  was  told  that  the  General 
was  not  at  home,  but  that  his  arrival  was  momentarily 
expected.  Upon  invitation  I  took  a  seat  on  a  sofa  in  the 
rear  room  of  the  large  double  parlor,,  which  was  dimly 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  175 

lighted,  and  concluded  to  await  the  General's  coming. 
After  conversing  a  few  moments  with  the  daughter,  she 
arose  and  said  that  she  and  her  mother  had  just  prepared 
for  church,  and  that  she  hoped  I  would  excuse  her,  es- 
pecially since  her  father  would  certainly  return  in  a  few 
moments.  I  was  alone  for  nearly  half  an  hour  and  still 
the  General  did  not  come.  At  length  I  concluded  to  go, 
thinking  he  had  been  unexpectedly  detained,  but  as  I  was 
upon  the  point  of  rising  a  step  in  the  hall  arrested  my  at- 
tention, and  amoment  later  the  General's  elder  daughter — 
by  the  way,  a  most  charming  young  lady, — entered  the 
front  parlor  accompanied  by  a  dashing,  handsome,  First 
Lieutenant  of  the  regular  army.  The  first  words  I  heard 
spoken  convinced  me  that  the  couple  were  upon  most  in- 
timate terms,  in  fact  were  lovers.  They  sat  down  near 
the  front  window,  and  as  some  salutations  had  already 
passed  between  them,  I  concluded  not  to  embarrass  them 
by  making  my  presence  known,  for  my  position  was  one 
which  .1  hardly  suspected  they  would  discover.  After 
billing  and  cooing  for  several  minutes,  the  young  man 
arose  to  depart,  but  his  beautiful  sweetheart  restrained 
him  by  some  persuasive  expressions,  and  a  few  minutes 
later  I  was  astounded  at  being  an  enforced  witness  of  the 
most  flagrant  conduct  between  them.  Upon  concluding 
their  repast  of  love  the  young  lady  conducted  her  com- 
panion to  the  door,  while  she  ran  nimbly  up  stairs  to  her 
room.  I  waited  but  a  short  time  longer,  when  the  Gen- 
eral returned  and  I  finished  my  business  with  him  ;  but 
my  mind  was  so  distracted  by  what  I  had  so  recently  wit- 
nessed that  the  most  important  interest  I  had  called  to 
consult  him  on  was  entirely  forgotten." 


176  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MESALLIANCES  AND    OFFICIAL   PECCADILLOS. 

ON  the  House  side  of  the  Capitol  building  is  a  reception 
room,  which  iias  been  denominated  by  newspaper  cor- 
respondents as  the  "  Cattery."  This  name  was  selected 
because  it  was  believed  to  possess  a  significance  peculiarly 
appropriate  to  designate  those  who  made  it  a  resort.  At 
any  hour  during  congressional  sittings  this  room  is  fairly 
filled  with  females,  some  of  whom  are  honest  women 
who  have  legitimate  business  with  congressmen  ;  but  a 
very  large  majority  of  these  waiters  are  fair  appearing 
concubines  or  professional  bawds.  With  shame-facedness 
they  repair  to  the  "Cattery,"  from  whence  they  send 
cards  in  to  delegates  and  there  await  a  reply,  which 
comes  either  in  person  or  by  note.  In  many  respects  it 
is  an  assignation  place,  maintained  at  public  expense  for 
the  benefit  of  salacious  congressmen.  Many  of  the 
most  notorious  amours  which  disgrace  Washington  life 
had  their  beginning  at  the  "  Cattery,"  one  of  which  I 
must  relate  : 

A  few  years  before  the  great  rebellion  a  gentleman  in 
Congress,  representing  a  Kentucky  district,  was  at- 
tracted by  Miss ,  whom  he  first  observed  on  the 

streets  of  Washington  when  she  was  seeking  a  clerkship. 
She  was  soon  afterward  referred  to  him,  and  though  no 
position  was  obtained  for  her,  by  request  she  visited  the 
"Cattery,"  where  the  foundation  of  a  mesalliance  was 
formed  which  resulted  in  a  most  pathetic  incident  fifteen 
years  later.  The  lady,  being  without  friends  or  influence 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  177 

and  on  the  verge  of  destitution,  consented  to  the  Ken- 
tucky congressman's  improper  overtures  on  condition 
that  he  would  relieve  her  necessities  and  provide  a  com- 
petence. A  private  room  was  engaged,  and  there  the 
woman  lived  for  two  years,  receiving  nightly  calls  from 
her  official  paramour,  until  at  length  the  seed  of  this 
cohabitation  began  to  ripen,  giving  promise  of  an  ap- 
proaching increase.  This  trouble,  however,  was  com- 
promised by  the  congressman's  liberality,  a  concealment 
of  his  amours  being  specially  precious  at  that  time  be- 
cause of  his  aspirations  for  the  Senate.  The  woman 
accepted  the  condition  of  her  motherhood  and  kept  sacred 
every  secret  with  which  she  was  entrusted,  until  her  son 
had  grown  to  the  age  of  ten  years.  In  the  meantime  her 
paramour  died,  and  she  had  been  sealed  in  wedlock  to  an 
honest  carpenter,  who  proved  a  devoted  husband.  The 
revelation  came  in  a  singular  manner,  as  will  be  seen : 
Some  time  in  1869,  Gen.  John  C.  Breckenridge  was 
stopping  at  Willard's  Hotel  with  a  lawyer  friend,  named 
Col.  Brown.  Early  one  morning,  during  this  stay,  a 
note  was  sent  up  to  their  room,  which  read  as  follows  : 

WASHINGTON,  March  3, 1869. 
GEN.  JOHN  C.  BRECKENRIDGE: 

Dear  Sir:  This  note  I  have  no  doubt  will  cause  you  profound 
surprise,  yet  I  trust  that  it  may  not  be  regarded  as  intrusively 
officious.  You  are  the  only  one  living  who  knows  of  the  relation- 
ship which  existed  between  Congressman  B d  and  myself  just 

prior  to  the  war.  It  is  concerning  that  unfortunate  alliance  that  I 
desire  to  see  you.  Please  call  on  me  this  evening  at  8  o'clock ;  do 
not  fail,  for  I  must  see  you.  Hoping  you  will  not  disappoint  me, 
I  am,  with  many  regards,  MRS. . 

After  reading  this  letter  Gen.  Breckenridge  passed  it 
to  Col.  Brown, 'who  also  read  it  carefully  and  then  asked 
its  meaning. 

"I  can't  guess  who  this  woman  is,"  said  Gen.  Breck- 
" but  she  is  evidently  a  well  educated  lady,  and 
12 


178  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

I  propose  to  call  on  her  in  compliance  with  the  request 
contained  in  the  note.  Will  you  go  with  me  to  see  that 
there  is  no  blackmail  in  the  case  ? ' ' 

"  Certainly  I  will,"  responded  Col.  Brown. 

At  the  hour  appointed  the  two  gentlemen  set  off  for 

Mrs.  's  residence,  which  was  not  above  six  blocks 

distant,  and  when  they  rapped  at  the  door  their  admit- 
tance was  into  a  room  which,  though  plainly  furnished, 
showed  evidence  of  a  wonderfully  neat  house-keeper.  A 
tidily  dressed  lady  received  them  very  graciously,  and 
when  the  preliminary  courtesies  of  meeting  were  con- 
cluded she  addressed  Gen.  Breckenridge  as  follows : 

"  I  know  you  must  have  had  some  misgivings  respect- 
ing the  purposes  of  my  note  ;  I  would  never  have  written 
it  had  not  circumstances  pressed  me  so  urgently.  I  see 
that  though  I  mentioned  my  relation  with  Congressman 
B.,  to  which  you  alone  were  cognizant,  that  my  identity 
is  not  fully  established .  You  will  perhaps  recognize  me 
when  I  relate  certain  circumstances  in  which  you,  Mr. 
B.  and  myself  were  jointly  interested." 

The  lady  then  described  several  clandestine  meetings 
which  occurred  at  her  rooms,  and  recalled  other  secrets 
which  were  still  so  fresh  in  the  memory  of  Gen.  Breck- 
enridge that  by  associating  these  incidents  he  fully  called 
to  mind  the  woman  who  addressed  him. 

Continuing,  she  said  :  "I  married  an  honest  carpenter 
five  years  ago,  who  has  always  been  indulgent  and  kind  ; 
we  live  entirely  off  the  wages  of  his  labor,  being  com- 
pelled to  practice  close  economy,  and  with  little  hope  of 
acquiring  means  sufficient  to  give  our  children  educational 
opportunities.  There  is  one  fact  connected  with  Mr.  B. 
and  myself  of  which  you  are,  perhaps,  in  ignorance,  and 
it  is  of  this  I  wish  specially  to  speak.  I  became  a  mother 
shortly  after  ceasing  to  occupy  a  room  with  him,  He 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  179 

knew  of  my  approaching  confinement,  and  treated  me 
with  a-  consideration  and  kindness  which  makes  his  name 
ever  blessed  to  me.  The  secret  between  us  was  inviolably 
kept ;  you,  his  best  and  confidential  friend,  alone  know 
anything  of  our  intimacy,  and  I  do  not  mean  that  anyone 
else  ever  shall,  save,  by  your  consent,  the  gentleman  who 
accompanies  you.  The  fruit  of  that  illicit  union  is  a  little 
boy,  now  nearly  nine  years  of  age,  whom  I  have  protected 
thus  far  with  a  true  mother's  love.  My  husband  has 
acted  the  part  of  a  kind  father,  and  would  educate  the 
boy  as  his  own  if  our  humble  circumstances  did  not  pre- 
vent. My  object  in  seeing  you  was  to  enlist  your  aid  and 
influence.  Mr.  B.  left  a  handsome  estate,  and  all  his 
near  relatives  are  wealthy  ;  this  dear  little  boy  is  deserv- 
ing of  some  of  the  advantages  which  this  wealth  might 
give ;  his  blood  is  theirs,  even  though  it  be  tainted  with 
a  mother's  sin,  and  through  your  influence  I  am  sure  he 
might  be  adopted  by  some  of  Mr.  B.'s  kindred,  who  are 
best  able  to  care  for  him.  May  I  ask  of  you  the  favor  of 
presenting  this  matter  to  some  one  among  his  father's 
people?" 

Gen.  Breckenridge  was  very  much  moved  by  the  lady's 
story  and  appeal,  but  without  betraying  the  emotion  which 
struggled  for  release,  he  asked  that  the  boy  might  be 
brought  into  the  room. 

After  a  moment's  disappearance  Mrs. returned  to 

the  room,  leading  her  son,  whose  bright  face,,  cheerful 
countenance,  large  eyes  and  winsome  looks  all  proclaimed 
his  birth.  In  an  instant  Gen.  Breckenridge  and  Col. 
Brown  recognized  the  boy  by  the  striking  resemblance  he 
bore  to  his  dead  father ;  every  feature  was  an  exact 
counterpart  and  left  no  room  for  possible  doubt  that  the 
woman's  story  was  literally  true. 

"Yes,   madam,   I  will   see  directly  that  this  boy  is 


180  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES, 

adopted  by  his  paternal  relatives,  and  will  promise  you 
further,  if  none  of  them  will  accept  his  guardianship  that 
I  will  be  a  father  to  him  and  see  that  he  has  all  the  ad- 
vantages you  properly  ask  for  him,"  was  the  General's 
reply. 

The  lad  found  a  home  in  the  family  of  Mr.  B.'s 
brother,  and  to-day  he  is  a  young  attorney  whose  mark 
is  among  the  stars.  No  fairer  promise  ever  stretched 
like  a  rainbow  of  fortune  over  the  head  of  a  son,  than 
that  which  spans  the  future  of  young  B. 

There  is  a  place  in  the  senate  chamber  that  has  about 
it  the  aroma  of  assignations,  though  it  is  a  resort  for 
members'  wives  and  the  privileged  class  of  visiting  aristo- 
crats. Nominally  it  is  the  ladies'  audience  chamber,  and 
is  fitted  up  with  a  lavish  display  of*  upholstery,  lambre- 
quins, Aixminster  carpets  and  vis-a-vis.  It  is  as  private  as 
a  box  at  the  theatre — sometimes  more  so,  especially  if 
the  audience  that  occupies  it  be  limited,  as  I  am  positively 
informed  has  happened  on  several  occasions. 

Whatever  may  have  occurred  in  this  exclusive  audience- 
room,  the  fact  is  apparent  that  it  might  be  put  to  effective 
use  as  a  star-chamber  sitting  between  voluptuaries  of  op- 
posite organism.  It  is  well  known  that  upon  special  oc- 
casions, through  the  influence  of  senators,  women  of  easy 
virtue  are  admitted,  and  that  they  give  receptions  therein 
to  those  who  write  notes  on  official  escritoires  underneath. 
Queens  of  the  lobby  have  entre  there,  and  from  this  lofty 
and  flattering  perch  they  become  objects  of  unctious  ad- 
miration, displaying  to  excellent  advantage  their  gorgeous 
apparel,  with  half  revealing  monuments  of  maternity 
peeping  over  brilliant  bodices,  and  arms  dressed  in  a 
rouge  that  helps  nature  amazingly. 

JJow  many  senatorial  roues  have  made  conquests  from 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


181 


among  the  rich  consorts  of  this  gallery-sanctum  it  is 
wholly  impossible  to  compute,  but  that  the  number 
reaches  into  thousands  none  will  deny  who  are  familiar 


A  QUEEN  OF  THE  LOBBY. 

with  the  tricks  of  high  office  members.  There  is  one 
case  in  point,  the  history  of  which,  though  well  known, 
always  borrows  interest  from  repetition ;  besides  this, 
there  is  such  importance  attached  to  the  parties  con- 


182  MYSTEfclES   AND   MISERIES. 

cerned  that  its  omission  from  this  work  of  resurrection 
and  commentary  would  be  inexcusable.  This  story  will 
be  found  in  the  succeeding  chapter. 


CHAPTEE  V. 

WASHINGTON  SCANDALS CONTINUED. 

THE  throes  of  civil  war  produce  many  singular  results, 
the  most  noteworthy  being,  perhaps,  the  men  who  are 
brought  from  comparative  oblivion  into  such  prominence 
that  their  names  blaze  up  with  popular  grandeur.  This 
fact  had  forcible  illustration  in  the  case  which  follows, 
as  all  the  parties  concerned  were  prodigies  of  war- 
circumstances. 

When  President  Lincoln  took  his  seat  he  foresaw  the 
impending  cloud-burst,  and  appreciating  how  important 
it  was  in  times  of  great  public  danger  to  surround  himself 
with  cabinet  advisers  who  were  both  wise  and  his  fast 
personal  friends,  he  permitted  this  feeling  to  suggest  his 
counsellors.  Among  the  men  t/hus  called,  to  whom  a 
secretary's  portfolio  was  given,  was  a  lawyer  of  Ohio — 
a  gentleman  who  had  profound  legal  acumen,  but  whose 
name  had  no  element  of  popularity  outside  of  his  State. 
He  accepted  the  position  thankfully,  and  immediately 
took  up  his  residence  in  Washington.  Among  his  family 
was  a  daughter  of  remarkable  beauty,  and  her  comeliness 
of  feature  was  immeasurably  increased  by  a  rare  intelli- 
gence, which  was  displayed  in  the  truly  wonderful  con- 
versational possessed,  which  she  enjoyed.  Not  above 


WASHINGTON 


183 


twenty  years  of  age — perhaps  younger — she  graced  that 
period  of  full  blooming  womanhood  with  charms  few 
could  resist.  Her  eyes  seemed  melting  with  an  all- 
pervading  love  ;  magnetic  currents  flashed  from  her  long, 
black  hair,  and  the  harmonious  curves  of  a  sensuous  mouth 
impassioned  her  beholders.  She  was  evidently  a  being 


EX-SENATOR  CHRISTIANCY,  OF  MICHIGAN. 

warm  with  tropical  heats,  and  so  exciting  that  she  in- 
fected the  very  air  she  breathed.  It  was  rumored  that 
this  young  lady  had  been  caught  under  the  valances  with 
a  young  lover,  by  an  irate  father,  some  years  before,  but 
rumor  failed  to  affect  her  social  standing,  and  soon  she 
was  the  acknowledged  belle  of  Washington.  Senators, 
congressmen,  judges,  and  rich  bachelors,  all  were  pros- 


184  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

trate  at  her  feet,  sighing  like  furnaces  and  proffering 
gifts  of  hearts  and  money.  It  is  said  that  more  than  one 
admirer  was  favored  with  small  relics  or  memorials 
clipped  from  her  character — morsels  of  delicious  deliri- 
ums— but  this  is  only  rumor,  and  envy  is  not  slow  to 
create  stories  which  strike  worse  and  deeper  than  mur- 
derous darts. 

Tired  of  listening  to  flattery,  or  prompted  by  visions 
of  wealth,  after  some  }rears  of  conquest  and  peerage,  this 
lady  became  wife  to  one  of  the  merchant  magnates  of 
New  England,  settled  down  in  apparent  comfort  and  con- 
tentment, with  no  desire  to  continue  the  coquettish  pleas- 
ures which  she  had  followed  so  long.  Time  fled  on  apace 
and  brought  with  it  gifts  of  the  marriage  title,  but  though 
motherhood  should  have  increased  her  domestic  dutiful- 
ness,  the  effect  was  abnormally  opposite,  for  cares  of  ma- 
ternity brought  back  full  upon  her  the  aspirations  of  those 
years  when  she  ruled  society  by  the  magnetism  of  her 
smiles  and  beauty.  Washington  became  for  a  second 
time  the  place  at  which  she  builded  a  shrine  to  receive 
the  vows  and  sacrifices  of  her  votaries. 

Shortly  after  her  re-succession  to  Capital  society  she 
met  a  lofty  genius  whose  fame  was  then  vaulting  through 
the  political  sky  like  some  great  and  lustrous  comet  of 
doubtful  direction.  He  was  eloquent,  graceful,  and  com- 
manding, but  there  was  certainly  110  beauty  in  his  face. 
This  man  conquered  her  proud  spirit  and  bent  it  under 
him  as  some  herculean  athlete  might  bend  a  weak  antago- 
nist. She  became  his  slave,  and  as  such  surrendered  the 
pride  of  her  being  and  dropped  in  worship  at  his  feet. 
Her  love  was  irresistible,  his  infatuation  all  powerful, 
and  in  their  devotion  they  became  sealed  in  spirit  if  not 
in  heart.  Night  after  night  this  couple  met  at  Worm- 
ley's  in  a  private  wine-room  and  measured  their  love  in 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


185 


the  cup  of  voluptuous  ecstacy  ;  in  these  moments  of  para- 
lyzing pleasure  they  forgot  the  duties  each  had  sworn  at 
Hymen's  altar  to  perform  ;  forgot  husband  and  wife, 
children  and  domestic  ties ;  forgot  the  preciousness  of 
loyalty  and  character,  but  rode  the  intoxicating  swirl  of  a 


MRS.  LILIAN   CHRISTIANCY,  WIFE  OF  THE  EX-SENATOR. 

maelstrom  that  finally  dashed  them  upon  the  breakers  of 
public  disgrace,  carrying  with  them  the  debris  of  their 
homes.  She,  though  still  a  mother,  is  no  longer  wife; 
all  her  aspirations  have  paled  like  a  seared  leaf,  and  she 
has  now  with  her  only  memories  of  a  distinguished  father 
sleeping  under  a  simple  shaft, — that  life  which  she  loved 
and  the  memory  her  acts  have  desecrated. 


186  MY8TEIUE8  AND  MI8KU1K9. 

The  above  story,  though  terrible  enough  in  its  blighting 
sequel,  is  hardly  so  pathetic  and  sorrowful  as  the  follow- 
ing- 
Several  years  ago  a  distinguished  senator  from  one  of 
the  Northern  States  met  with  a  serious  calamity,  which 
left  him  for  a  time  wholly  inconsolable.  His  wife,  the 
joy  of  his  life,  who  had  accompanied  him  through  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  his  experience  during  forty  years,  died. 
Her  hand  had  been  as  a  staff  to  him,  and  now  that  it  had 
lost  its  cunning  by  the  touch  of  death,  he  felt  like  one 
treading  some  lofty,  narrow  pathway  without  the  means 
to  preserve  his  poise.  But  he  was  a  politician,  and  over 
the  rift  in  his  heart  time  soon  placed  a  gracious  balm, 
which  healed  it  presently.  He  was  greatly  sustained 
throughout  the  mourning  days  by  a  sympathy  which 
wealth  is  sure  to  receive  ;  and  when  less  than  a  score  of 
months  were  passed  he  was  chosen  to  represent  his  com- 
monwealth in  the  United  States  Senate.  Though  ad- 
vanced in  years  almost  to  the  allotted  span,  with  children 
and  grand  offspring  about  his  board,  still  age  sat  lightly 
upon  him,  and  none  of  the  fires  of  a  lusty  nature  had 
been  quenched  by  the  operations  of  emasculating  time. 
Being  inordinately  rich,  there  was  no  lack  of  admirers 
among  his  female  friends,  and  he  found  the  customs  of 
Washington  society  so  peculiarly  agreeable  that  his  career 
was,  for  a  year,  little  less  than  reckless  dissipation 

Returning  after  Senate  adjournment,  he  drifted  again 
into  society  among  families  of  an  elderly  acquaintance, 
where  he  was  not  long  in  discovering  a  beautiful  face, 
clothed  with  the  fine  graces  of  youth ;  an  acquaintance 
ripened  rapidly  into  sighs,  and  though  it  was  like  strain- 
ing the  seasons — an  unwholesome  admixture  of  spring 
and  fall — yet  the  courting  proved  sweetness  long  drawn 
out,  from  a  chance  meeting  to  the  altar,  where  they  were 


WASHINGTON  CWV. 


18? 


wed,  and  merrily  chimed  the  bells — but  the  sexton  was 
paid  for  it. 

When  Congress  resumed  its  sitting  our  aged  senator 
was  found  at  his  post  of  duty  radiant  with  smiles  of  com- 
placency and  solid  contentment.  His  wife,  who  had 


MRS.  KATE  CHASE  SPRAGUE. 

scarcely  shed  her  callow  sentiments,  lived  through  the 
winter  like  one  upon  whose  head  some  kind  fairy  had 
poured  the  oil  of  magic  prosperity,  but  left  her  heart  in 
all  its  former  poverty.  Who  can  tell  the  feelings  of  a 
young  and  handsome  girl  who,  blessed  with  the  favors  of 
soft-cooing  lovers,  had  often  suffered  the  fragrance  of 
her  lips  to  be  kissed  away  by  one  she  really  loved ;  who 


188  MYSTERIES   AND   M1SE1UES, 

can  guess  her  wishes  as  she  contemplates  these  sweet 
memories,  and  from  such  beautiful  reveries  is  suddenly 
brought  face  to  face  with  a  husband  whose  wrinkled 
face  and  philosophical  speech  are  to  her  like  the  moss- 
incrusted  branches  of  a  dying  tree  ? 

Washington  was  gay,  and  in  this  round  of  inconsiderate 
pleasure  the  young  wife  found  some  respite  from  her 
care,  and  partial  compensation  for  the  mouldy,  musty 
caresses  she  was  compelled  to  receive.  She  found  that 
in  age  the  fires  of  passion  feed  on  fuel  of  quick  con- 
sumption ;  the  flame  is  fierce,  but  only  momentary, 
when  it  dies  again,  and  is  hard  to  rekindle. 

Serving  his  time  as  a  legislator,  our  senator  was  called 
to  represent  our  government  at  a  foreign  court ;  he  bore 
the  air  of  a  reverend  seignior,  and  had  much  to  recom- 
mend him  as  a  diplomat.  Not  to  be  separated  from  that 
wherein  he  had  found  the  rosy  spring  of  pleasure,  his 
wife  accompanied  him,  and  remained  ministering  to  his 
infirmities  with  becoming  dutifulness. 

After  a  time,  however,  he  was  relieved  from  office,  but 
having  some  business  which  would  detain  him  abroad 
beyond  the  time  of  his  letters,  he  permitted  his  young 
and  accomplished  wife  to  return  home  two  weeks  in  ad- 
vance of  his  own  departure. 

Having  no  escort  upon  leaving  port,  an  averment,  duly 
filed ,  with  proper  acknowledgment,  recites  that  she  was 
scarce  one  day  on  the  voyage  ere  fortune,  or  evil  circum- 
stance, gave  opportunity  for  an  acquaintance  with  a 
gentleman  of  many  personal  attractions.  He  is  repre- 
sented as  being  of  fine  address,  handsome  form,  charming 
features,  and  of  a  complexion  that  resembles  the  shadows 
of  a  tropical  morning.  There  was  an  accent  in  his 
speech  that  became  his  conversation  amazingly,  and  if  he 
professed  love  to  the  young  wife,  who  shall  blame  him  or 
her? 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


The  tongue  of  rumor  wagged  all  the  more  excitedly 
when  this  couple  of  equalized  temperaments  reached 
New  York  and  found  lodgings  safe  from  intrusions. 
They  may  have  occupied  rooms  that  were  separated  by  a 
street.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  this  is  so,  and  shall 
give  them  the  full  benefit  of  the  doubt ;  but  the  aver- 


EX-SENATOR  CONKLING,  OF  NEW  YORK. 

ment  above  referred  to  recites  that  they  registered  as  a 
loyally  married  couple,  "man  and  wife" — so  they  were, 
though  the  surface  indicated  a  mistake  somewhere.  It 
further  discloses  that  the  experience  was  protracted  for 
several  days,  and  upon  various  occasions,  all  of  which  I 
seriously  believe  to  be  false  ;  further  than  this,  there  are 
excellent  reasons  for  believing  that  the  ancient  consort 
was  influenced  against  his  wife  purely  through  jealousy 
excited  in  him  by  a  knowledge  of  Washington's  notorious 
Inconstancy. 


190  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

In  the  application  for  divorce,  which  is  a  sequel  to  this 
young  wife's  return  from  abroad,  we  find  much  to  excite 
our  sympathy.  Such  disparity  of  age  as  is  seen  in  this 
case  always  excites  suspicion  against  both  parties — one 
being  charged  with  austerity  and  unreasonable  jealousy, 
and  the  other  with  foibles  which  unsatisfied  nature  fre- 
quently practices.  This  lady,  however,  has  shown  a 
modesty,  since  her  troubles,  that  entitles  her  to  sympathy 
and  a  belief  in  her  innocence.  Such  deep  grief  and 
mortification  has  she  exhibited  that  those  most  intimate 
believe  the  golden  chords  of  her  reason  have  been  almost 
broken.  On  more  than  one  occasion  has  it  been  neces- 
sary to  restrain  her,  and  her  acts  have  be'eii  strange  and 
alarming.  She  is  under  the  care  of  a  doctor  and  kind 
father,  but  there  is  no  balm  that  can  ease  her  mental  suf- 
ferings. Once  she  succeeded  in  escaping  her  watchers, 
and  though  clothed  only  in  anight-dress,  she  ran  through 
the  streets  of  Washington  in  mad  delirium,  shouting  in- 
coherent sentences  that  told  a  tale  of  keenest  sorrow. 
Her  home  is  now  a  shelter  with  all  the  joys  of  life  ex- 
tracted. Day  and  night  her  pitiable  moans  maybe  heard 
by  passers  by,  and  every  sigh  seems  to  tell  the  sad  ro- 
mance of  a  beautiful  young  life  that  has  left  its  sacrifice 
at  the  feet  of  Washington's  society. 


CHAPTER  YI. 

WASHINGTON  SCANDALS CONTINUED. 

IN  the  early  part  of  1881,  a  bombshell  exploded  with 
such  force  under  the  corner  stone  of  capital  aristocracy 
as  to  wreck  the  fabric  of  two  fair  characters,  and  give  a 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


191 


terrible  shaking  up  to  society  at  large.  This  denouement 
was  but  a  common  result  of  a  monotonously  common 
practice,  and  but  for  the  double  crime  which  it  compassed 
would  hardly  have  met  with  popular  regard.  A  distin- 
guished service  officer  of  boreal  aspirations,  whose  career 


MISS  NELLIE  POLLARD,  ALIAS  BURRELL. 

had  been  one  of  much  distinction,  held  a  lucrative  and  re- 
sponsible position  under  the  government  at  Washington, 
in  which  city  he  made  his  residence.  A  fair  wind  of 
public  confidence  and  esteem  had  blown  him  into  a  snug 
harbor ;  his  domestic  ties  consisted  of  a  devoted  wife  and 


192  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

children,  and  there  was  every  surface  indication  of  blessed 
fortune  which  should  make  his  life  one  of  contentment, 
if  not  the  acme  of  paternal  happiness. 

It  chanced  that  there  lived  in  Washington  during  this 
hey-day  of  our  hero's  blushing  honors  a  maiden — that  is 
to  say,  an  unmarried  lass — who  occupied  a  soft  and  sen- 
suous chair  in  the  Treasury  Department,  where  she  per- 
formed clerical  services  and  sometimes  bestowed  glances 
of  perplexing  desire  upon  her  official  superiors.  She  was 
the  daughter  of  a  Massachusetts  postmaster  and  had  been 
given  many  educational  and  musical  advantages  ;  her  con- 
versation was  brilliant,  her  form  and  face  alike  beautiful, 
and  there  was  a  bewildering  suggestion  in  the  smiles  she 
wore.  Every  morning  and  evening  this  little  bunch  of 
bewitching  femininity  ran  athwart  the  vision  of  that  dis- 
tinguished service  officer  as  she  passed  to  and  from  her 
accustomed  duties.  At  first  she  was  merely  noticed, 
then  expected,  and  finally  her  appearance  was  looked  for 
with  keenest  anxiety  by  the  officer  who  found  himself 
growing  daily  more  solicitous  for  a  meeting.  In  Wash- 
ington city,  where  such  license  is  permitted  between  the 
sexes,  it  was  but  a  pleasant  thing  for  him  to  arrest  her 
attention  one  afternoon  as  she  was  passing  by  his  office. 

"  Madam,  permit  me  to  detain  you  a  moment--  Your 
face  has  become  so  familiar  to  me  that  I  cannot  resist- the 
temptation  to  ask  your  residence  and  employment.  If  I 
am  impertinent  or  intrusive,  attribute  the  fault  to  an 
irresistible  curiosity,  perhaps  an  idle  fancy,  but  I  trust 
you  will  regard  me  as  a  gentleman  meaning  no  offense." 

This  pretty  address  drew  forth  a  very  kind  response, 
and  from  that  hour  the  service  officer  was  in  love,  with 
all  his  passions  fully  reciprocated.  Don  Juan  never  did 
a  more  clever  act,  nor  was  Donna  Annie  ever  more  gra<? 
douslv  responsive  than  these  two  chance  lovers. 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


193 


On  the  succeeding  evening  there  was  a  small  gas-jet 
burning  in  a  back  connecting  room  of  the  officer's  head- 
quarters, which  was  occupied  by  two  persons  busy  with 
the  preliminaries  of  an  intimate  relationship.  How  far 
or  successfully  these  delicious  arrangements  were  con- 
4ucted  can  only  be  approximated  by  judgment  based  on 


CAPT.  HENRY  W.   HOWGATE. 

the  sequel.  It  is  positive,  however,  that  no  difficulties 
were  interposed,  for  thereafter  these  meetings  became  so 
regular  that  the  town  clock  might  have  been  set  aright 
any  night  by  the  soft  click  of  a  bolt  which  debarred  in- 
truders from  the  service  office.  From  secret  meetings, 
which  fostered  the  flame  of  their  Platonic  love,  there 


194  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

succeeded  amorous  fires,  which  fed  on  wine  and  revelry ; 
the  officer's  quarters  became  too  small  for  their  purposes, 
and  with  the  genius  that  surmounts  difficulties,  having 
ample  funds  in  his  custody,  he  set  about  the  construction 
of  an  elaborate  and  sumptuous  residence  in  which  to 
support  his  Thalia  and  give  greater  freedom  for  the 
debauches  which  they  each  found  pleasure  in.  There 
was  a  luxurious  house-warming  when  the  building  was 
completed,  but  owing  to  a  sparse  limit  of  invitations 
only  two  persons  participated ;  these  two,  it  is  almost 
needless  to  mention,  were  lord  and  lady  of  the  mansion. 
It  is  estimated  that  $60,000  was  spent  in  the  construc- 
tion and  furnishing  of  this  private  establishment,  but  the 
money  was  obtained  by  an  appropriation  levied  upon  the 
funds  which  he  held  for  the  government. 

Several  months  were  spent  by  this  cooing  couple  in 
their  exclusive  palace,  love  running  riot  in  utter  disre- 
gard of  official  duties  or  the  rumors  which  began  to  cir- 
culate and  grow  into  tales  of  great  public  scandal.  At 
length,  however,  the  lawful  spouse  of  our  libidinous 
service  officer  discovered  that  she  was  playing  second 
fiddle  to  a  courtesan,  for  whom  was  reserved  the  choicest 
dalliances.  Being  a  woman  of  resolute  will,  her  indigna- 
tion broke  with  terrific  effect  upon  the  heads  of  her 
husband  and  his  enamorata.  She  invaded  that  mansion, 
and  with  strong  arms  of  righteous  wrath,  smashed  every 
article  of  furniture,  laid  waste  her  illicit  rival's  wardrobe, 
and  branded  each  nook,  wall  and  article  about  the  house 
with  an  impress  of  her  fury,  which  became  an  unmis- 
takable sign  unto  those  who  had  dwelt  therein. 

All  Washington  now  learned  of  the  excitement  down 

on street,  and  there  was  a  mighty  flocking  to  the 

spot  to  obtain  particulars  ;  one  day  later  every  daily  news- 
paper contained  a  lengthy  and  circumstantial  Account  of 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  195 

officer 's  amours  and  disgrace.      But  the  domestic 

cauldron  in  which  he  was  now  boiling,  hot  and  mortify- 
ing though  it  proved,  was  but  a  foretaste  of  the  pangs  he 
was  to  suffer.  An  investigation  disclosed  the  fact  that  he 
had  used  nearly  $200,000  of  government  funds,  and  fol- 
lowing this  came  an  indictment  for  embezzlement,  which 
sent  him  to  the  public  gaol.  The  lamentable  spectacle  is 
now  afforded  of  a  distinguished  officer  fallen  suddenly 
from  high  estate  to  the  level  of  a  criminal,  destitute  of 
money,  friends,  sympathy  and  his  own  self-respect;  a 
once  happy  home  desolated  by  his  inconsiderate  lust,  leav- 
ing on  its  threshold  the  brand  of  burning  shame  as  an  in- 
heritance to  his  wife  and  children. 

It  was  while  Washington  society  was  dancing  on  the 
crest  of  this  scandal,  like  a  dory  in  a  heavy  sea,  that  an- 
other secret  magazine  exploded  with  astonishing  force, 
throwing  up  a  census  officer  and  his  mistress  to  public 
gaze.  This  case  has  in  it  many  elements  strongly  resem- 
bling the  one  just  described,  being  almost  identical,  ex- 
cept that  no  criminal  charge  was  preferred. 

The  parties  concerned  in  this  latter  transgression — 

running  fallows  in  sacred  ground — were  Col. ,  a 

public  officer  and  citizen  whose  name  was  once  held  in 
high  repute,  and  a  young  lady  equally  well  known  in 
Washington  society.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  this 
gentleman  was  lawful  husband  to  a  dutiful  wife  and 
father  to  a  promising  progeny,  the  vices  of  Capital  life 
had  tapped  the  current  of  his  domestic  love  and  impreg- 
nated his  very  soul  with  poison . 

No  man  need  seek  long  for  a  comely  leman  in  Wash- 
ington, nor  do  salacious  women  have  to  look  two  ways 
before  finding  a  cuckold.  Each  class  is  thicker  than 
Jiuckleberries,  and  the  harvest  is  perpetually  ripe  too, 


196  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

This  fact  is  evidenced  by  the  several  illustrations  already 
afforded,  but  will.be  further  confirmed  by  the  case  in  point. 

The  gentleman  referred  to,  holding  an  excellent  posi- 
tion, being  chief  of  a  division,  and,  ergo,  the  emploj^er  of 
several  female  clerks,  had  a  veritable  clover  field  to  lux- 
uriate in.  Some  reports,  circulated  only  by  whispers, 
grew  current  that  he  was  playing  an  altogether  too  fath- 
erly part  to  some  of  his  handsomer  underlings,  but  then 
had  the  report  been  true,  no  one  in  Washington  would 
have  excepted  to  so  common  a  privilege,  save,  perhaps, 
his  wife.  He  was  suffered  to  continue  his  little  adven- 
tures for  several  months,  and  would  no  doubt  still  be  in- 
dulging his  secret  delices  had  not  indiscretion  brought  him 
in  contact  with  a  petard  fully  loaded,  cocked  and  primed. 
Rumors  fly  like  frightened  quails — in  every  direction — and 
by  chance  one  of  these  flew  squarely  into  his  wife's  ears. 
Stung  with  jealousy,  she  posted  an  ambush  and  then 
watched  for  the  enemy ;  she  was  armed  with  a  flexible 
cowhide,  and  the  fire  which  is  so  destructive  when  it 
flashes  from  the  eyes  of  an  outraged  spouse. 

The  husband  was,  unfortunately  for  himself,  taking  a 
ride  in  company  with  the  woman  with  whom  rumor  had 
intimately  associated  him ,  and  intoxicated  like  one  full  of 
a  siren's  music,  he  drove  straight  into  the  ambush  his 
wife  had  so  cunningly  laid.  The  carriage  which  drew 
the  guilty  couple  was  intercepted  in  New  York  avenue,  a 
popular  highway,  and  then  began  one  of  the  most  ex- 
citing battles  that  a  delighted  crowd  ever  witnessed. 
The  indignant  wife  produced  her  cowhide,  and  with 
surprising  activity  and  muscular  force,  she  assailed  the 
wench  whom  her  husband  was  coddling,  and  administered 
a  discipline  which  might  be  an  example  for  any  Delaware 
sheriff.  There  was  a  hail-storm  in  that  carriage  that 
struck  the  disgraced  couple  like  an  Alpine  avalanche  ;  the 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  197 

4 

husband  protested,  and  then  interfered ;  but,  though  he 
could  arrest  the  lash,  he  could  not  prevent  a  Vociferous 
proclamation  of  his  shameful  amours  and  a  dissection  of 
his  partner's  character.  The  woman  who  had  stolen  the 
affections  of  Col.  retreated  rapidly  around  a  con- 
venient corner,  leaving  the  crestfallen  husband  to  the 
mercy  of  his  enraged  wife. 

Who  may  fathom  the  poignant  distress  which  her  hus- 
band's outrageous  conduct  created  in  the  trusting  heart 
of  that  wife  and  mother  ?  There  was  an  apparent  recon- 
ciliation between  the  lawful  couple,  but  never  can  mutual 
respect  and  loving  confidence  have  an  abiding  place  in 
that  \n>onged  woman's  heart  again.  In  all  the  curses 
of  polygamy  there  are  no  more  wretched  examples 
of  broken  hearts,  nursing  griefs,  and  despairing  lives 
than  may  be  found  in  the  rich  drawing-rooms  of  Wash- 
ington society. 

The  stories  here  told  of  Capital  scandals  have  perhaps 
already  grown  too  long  and  tedious,  yet  before  leaving 
this  branch  of  an  unwholesome  subject  I  must  introduce 
one  more  thus  briefly : 

During  the  war  a  Governor  of  a  Western  State,  whose 
reputation  was  like  a  pillar  of  fire  to  Republican  camp- 
followers,  met  with  an  adventure  which  branded  him  so 
deeply  that  it  ultimately  bore  him  to  the  grave.  The 
circumstances  of  this  strange  incident  are  as  follows  :  A 
smuggler,  being  detected  in  the  act  of  carrying  contra- 
band goods  to  the  Confederates,  was  arrested  and  brought 
to  trial  by  court-martial.  Having  no  defence  to  offer, 
his  conviction  was  speedily  secured  and  sentence  of  death 
was  pronounced.  He  had  some  influential  friends  who 
sought  to  obtain  a  commutation  of  the  punishment,  but 
they  wholly  failed,  whereupon  his  wife,  a  courageous,  in- 


198  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

telligent  and  withal  a  very  handsome  lady,  determined  to 
abate  no  effort  that  might,  through  any  possibility,  pre- 
vent her  husband's  execution,  presented  herself  to  the 
Governor,  armed  with  a  long  petition  for  executive  clem- 
ency and  the  keener  instruments  of  persuasion  —  a 
woman's  tears  and  prayers.  The  Governor,  struck  by 
her  beauty  and  melting  appeals,  promised  to  consider  the 
petition,  and  asked  her  to  call  upon  him  again  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  at  a  stated  time  after  office  hours. 

Hope  had  sprung  brightly  in  that  fond  wife's  heart 
and  she  hastened  to  acquaint  her  husband  with  the  Gov- 
ernor's kind  recognition  of  her  entreaties.  Promptly  at 
the  hour  appointed  she  repaired  to  the  executive  chamber 
and  was  rejoiced  to  find  the  Governor  alone.  He  received 
her  very  courteously,  even  warmly,  and  when  the  matter 
of  a  pardon  was  suggested  by  the  anxious  wife,  he  so  far 
forgot  his  honor  and  dignity  as  to  make  lubricious  ap- 
proaches to  his  supplicant ;  being  repelled  at  first,  he  at 
length  made  the  pardon  of  her  husband  conditional  upon 
a  surrender  to  him  of  her  chastity.  Such  a  vile  propo- 
sition, made  under  such  distressing  circumstances,  is  a 
crime  the  monstrosity  of  which  cannot  be  measured,  nor 
is  language  strong  enough  to  pronounce  a  punishment  the 
impious  act  merits.  Were  it  not  for  the  indubitable 
proofs  that  are  offered  to  attest  its  truth,  I  could  not  be- 
lieve such  moral  perverseness  on  the  part  of  so  high  a 
functionary  possible,  but  being  undoubtedly  true  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  declare  the  circumstances. 

To  save  the  life  of  her  husband  this  devoted  wife,  chaste 
as  Godiva,  consented  to  thus  submit  herself,  for  the 
motive  which  impelled  her  made  the  action  a  seal  of  duty 
for  which  she  deserves  to  be  honored. 

True  to  his  promise  this  lecherous  Governor  gave  an  un- 
conditional pardon  to  the  condemned  man,  who  had  no 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  199 

sooner  set  foot  upon  his  own  threshold  before  the  trust- 
ing, honorable  wife  informed  him  fully  of  the  sacrifice 
she  had  made  to  obtain  his  release.  The  husband  con- 
sidered for  several  days  how  he  should  revenge  his  do- 
mestic wrongs,  until  an  idea  entered  his  head,  which,  for 
devilish  ingenuity  would  have  reflected  credit  even  upon 
Mephistophiles  himself. 

Being  informed  of  the  Executive's  weakness,  the 
wronged  husband  went  in  search  of  a  woman  who  should 
be  possessed  of  three  distinguishing  peculiarities :  She 
should  be  strikingly  handsome,  have  much  cunning  artifice 
and  boldness,  and  at  the  same  time  be  the  victim  of  a  dis- 
ease scarcely  less  loathsome  than  leprosy.  Such  a  woman 
was  found  after  diligent  search,  and  in  consideration  of  a 
certain  sum  of  money  she  agreed  to  play  the  part  of  a 
Delilah. 

She  thereupon  sought  audience  with  the  Governor,  and 
by  a  demonstration  of  coy  unctiousness,  involving  many 
apparently  unconscious  displays  of  person  before  him, 
succeeded  in  communicating  her  dreadful  infection  and 
in  thus  making  him  a  victim  to  his  own  greedy  lusts. 

Some  years  after  this  abominable  circumstance  the 
Governor  was  chosen  to  a  high  seat  in  the  national  coun- 
cils, where  he  rose  to  the  distinction  of  a  great  political 
leader,  as  well  as  a  primordial  element  in  Washington  so- 
ciety, where  he  held  undisputed  sway  for  a  long  period. 
But  the  emasculating  disease  never  ceased  its  cankerous 
ravages  upon  his  constitution  until  the  great  physician, 
Death,  came  to  minister  at  his  bedside.  The  husband's 
wrongs  were  fully  avenged. 


^00  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CORRUPTION  AND  DEBAUCHMENT. 

THE  incidents  recorded  in  preceding  chapters  afford 
some  idea  of  the  sensual  practices  which  obtain  and  char- 
acterize official  life  at  Washington.  They  are  selected 
from  hundreds  of  well-known  scandals  of  recent  occur- 
rence merely  to  illustrate  the  character  and  prevailing  ob- 
scenities peculiar  to  Capital  residence,  not  by  any  means 
pretending  to  describe  a  one  hundreth  part  of  the  seduc- 
tions and  concubinage  which  have  been  exposed  in  Wash- 
ington during  the  past  few  years ;  for,  to  speak  by  the 
card,  and  without  exaggerating  facts,  it  may  truthfully  be 
said  that  there  are  few  aristocratic  homes  in  Washington 
that  do  not  shelter  some  domestic  skeleton. 

But  greed  and  lust  being  associated  by  strong  ties  of 
nature,  where  one  is  seen  we  may  expect  the  other  to  be 
lurking  near,  like  a  Dukite  snake,  full  of  venom  and 
anxious  for  opportunities.  The  lobby  is  one  of  the  most 
potential  adjuncts  to  corruption,  and  since  its  power  is 
recognized  and  applauded,  the  public  must  endure  the 
burdens  it  imposes.  Politics,  while  essential  to  govern- 
ment, is  none  the  less  a  frightful  curse,  that  poisons  the 
blood  of  national  life.  Party  spirit  is  an  intolerant 
factor,  that,  like  a  subtle  bane,  steals  into  men's  brains 
and  destroys  their  reason ;  popular  suffrage  becomes  an 
agency  for  disrupting  national  sovereignty,  and  welds 
collars  of  iron  about  the  necks  of  those  who  exercise  it. 
A  duly  nominated  candidate  carries  with  him  the  keen 
lash  of  party  discipline,  and  though  his  character  were 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  201 

the  very  embodiment  of  iniquity,  with  this  commanding 
scourge  he  drives  an  unreasonable  public  before  him. 
To  illustrate  this  fact  more  forcibly  the  following  true 
incident  may  be  aptly  mentioned : 

A  certain  lawyer,  who  had  little  practice,  but  was  a 
shrewd  political  schemer,  succeeded  in  procuring  his  elec- 
tion to  the  State  legislature.  He  was  distressingly  poor 
at  this  time,  but  having  once  attained  to  an  elective  office, 
he  wholly  abandoned  the  legal  profession  and  took  to 
politics.  From  the  time  of  his  first  official  service  there 
were  charges  against  his  integrity,  yet  this  political  leper 
continued  to  advance  until  he  held  the  office  of  senator 
and  had  been  called  to  act  as  one  of  the  President's  chief 
counsellors.  The  charges  of  malfeasance  continued  to 
pursue  him ;  his  moral  turpitude  was  fully  established, 
and  every  seat  he  filled  was  smirched  by  the  corruption 
which  stained  his  life.  From  a  poor  and  unsuccessful 
lawyer  he  not  only  rose  to  most  exalted  stations  by 
appointment  and  election,  but  also  accumulated  a  fortune 
estimated  at  $15,000,000.  His  political  services  have 
extended  through  about  fifteen  years,  and  during  all  this 
time  he  has  not  been  known  to  engage  in  any  commercial 
enterprises  ;  his  gains  have,  therefore,  been  due  entirely 
to  a  sagacity  which  may  readily  be  confounded  with  cor- 
ruption. Yet  despite  these  facts,  which  do  not  admit  of 
doubt,  this  man  is  still  in  office,  with  none  of  his  pop- 
ularity unsullied. 

This  example  is  only  one  of  hundreds,  illustrating  the 
abuse  of  popular  suffrage,  and  furnishes  indubitable 
proof  that  the  perpetuity  and  prosperity  of  our  nation 
can  only  be  secured  through  the  success  of  independent 
parties.  Yet  we  know  that  this  fact  will  not  be  regarded 
because  of  the  blind  prejudice  and  inflammatory  declara- 
tions that  are  excited  by  every  canvass,  and  are  kept 
active  during  all  seasons  by  a  partisan  press. 


202  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

The  influences  which  surround  members  of  Congress 
are  variable  and  powerful.  There  is  a  very  army  of  men 
and  women  employed  by  rich  or  projected  corporations 
to  assist  legislation  in  their  immediate  interests.  Money 
flows  as  generously  as  the  water  that  gushed  out  of 
Horeb's  rock,  and  what  cannot  be  accomplished  by 
money  is  usually  consummated  by  blushing  privileges 
which  beautiful  and  fascinating  women  can  grant  so 
felicitously. 

During  the  congressional  sessions  there  is  a  vast  horde 
of  lobbyists  always  found  infesting  every  desirable 
quarter,  many  of  whom  rent  fine  residences  in  which  they 
give  levees  to  legislators  in  a  style  of  splendor  approach- 
ing profligacy.  Women,  however,  are  the  most  effective 
lobbyists,  and  it  is  through  their  machinations  that  the 
most  gigantic  swindles  are  perpetrated ;  they  are  shrewd 
judges  of  human  nature,  and  can  estimate  a  venal  congress- 
man by  the  knot  in  his  cravat,  or  the  kid-gloves  he 
wears.  These  most  susceptible  corruptionists  are  turned 
over  to  male  lobbyists,  while  the  florid-faced,  unboiled- 
shirt  and  cowhide-shoe  brigade  of  officers  are  the  subjects 
for  female  persuasion. 

An  exceedingly  popular  way  of  evading  a  charge  of 
direct  payment  in  money  to  corrupt  legislators  may  be 
described  as  follows  :  A  lobbyist,  after  securing  an  in- 
troduction to  the  member  whose  influence  and  vote  he 
desires,  finds  occasion  to  meet  the  legislator  at  several 
places  where  his  friends  congregate,  and  manages  to  con- 
duct a  campaign  that  will  secure  many  favorable  opinions 
and  flattering  expressions.  After  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance is  established  between  the  two,  the  lobbyist  casually 
mentions  the  scheme  or  bill  he  is  interested  in,  and  asks 
the  member's  judgment  concerning  its  merits.  Should 
the  congressman  be  favorable  to  such  bill,  no  attempt  at 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  203 

bribery  will  be  made ;  but,  however  strong  his  apparent 
conviction  may  be,  the  congressman  will  be  watched  care- 
fully to  see  that  his  opinion  be  not  changed.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  he  should  show  a  decided  objection  and 
explain  why  he  could  not  conscientiously  give  such  bill 
his  support,  the  congressman  is  subjected  to  many  cun- 
ning wiles  and,  lastly,  a  special  agreement,  involving  a 
promise  to  pay  from  $1,000  to  $5,000  for  his  advocacy  of 
the  bill.  When  an  agreement  of  this  kind  is  accepted, 
the  lobbyist  and  legislator  meet  at  some  private  room 
where  other  members  indulge  gambling  proclivities,  and 
begin  a  game  of  poker,  with  the  distinct  understanding 
that  the  congressman  shall  win,  and,  per  contra,  the 
lobbyist  shall  lose,  such  amount  of  money  as  was  stipu- 
lated to  be  paid  for  the  vote.  By  this  means  corrupt 
legislators  avoid  perjury  when  they  swear  that  Tom  Jones 
(the  lobbyist)  never  paid  them  a  cent  in  his  life.  These 
matters  sometimes  are  the  object  of  official  investigation, 
but  rarely  amount  to  anything,  because  the  "put  up" 
game  of  poker  gives  immunity  from  the  charge  of  direct 
bribery.  Of  course  there  is,  in  fact,  no  mitigation  of 
the  crime,  but  it  is  made  a  pretext,  which  gives  security 
by  preventing  a  conviction.  It  very  frequently  occurs 
that  a  congressman  who  never  threw  a  card  in  all  his  life, 
and  who  is  ignorant  of  the  difference  between  the  knave 
of  clubs  and  queen  of  hearts  (bariing  policemen  and 
pretty  department  queens)  gets  up  from  a  table  several 
thousand  dollars  winner,  though  his  opponent  were  a 
consummate  gambler — and  a  proficient  lobbyist,  too. 

There  are  men  in  Congress  of  the  Davy  Crockett  and 
Sam  Houston  type,  whose  outward  appearances  indicate 
no  special  ambition  for  the  acquirement  of  wealth  ;  men 
whose  shirt  collars  are  a  part  of  the  garment ;  whose 
pants  need  a  shank-strap  to  keep  them  from  exposing 


204  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

strips  of  woollen  socks,  and  whose  whiskers  fit  like  a 
broad  halter  under  their  necks — and  sometimes  no  whis- 
kers at  all.  These  men  are  like  the  negative  pole  of  a 
battery — they  repel  male  seducers, — but  when  a  frisky 
piece  of  fresh  crinoline  brushes  against  them  it  is  like 
flint  and  steel  coming  in  contact,  and  it  is  rarely  "  a  flash 
in  the  pan ' '  either,  for  there  is  a  quick  perception  aroused 
which  implies  business. 

Often,  while  going  up  and  down  Pennsylvania  avenue, 
or  watching  a  choice  congregation  of  gaudily  decked 
women  in  the  Capital  galleries,  I  have  met  with  female 
faces  and  forms  of  such  rare  attraction  that  I  could  not 
help  partly  excusing  congressmen  for  becoming  slaves  to 
the  will  of  such  beautiful  witches. 

An  old  man  is  much  more  susceptible  to  woman's  blan- 
dishment than  the  youthful,  and  since  they  are  also  less 
liable  to  be  perverted  by  money  consideration,  the  sirens 
of  the  lobby  are  depended  upon  to  manipulate  them.  It- 
is  a  rare  sight  to  see  an  elderly  and  dignified  official  pre. 
paring  his  toilet  before  responding  in  person  to  the  re- 
quest of  a  perfumed  note  received  from  a  lady  in  I£ 
street.  This  lady  is,  of  course,  one  of  the  talented  beau- 
ties employed  in  the  interest  of  some  corporation  or  indi . 
vidual  to  further  the  passage  of  bills  designed  for  private 
interests.  She  is  lithe  and  sinuous,  dresses  like  Cora 
Pearl  in  her  best  days,  has  eyes  more  melting  than  a 
gazelle's,  and  in  every  respect  is  too  utterly  charming 
for  an  old  lover  to  play  with  without  having  his  fingers 
burned. 

The  elderly  representative  curls  his  sparse  locks  ancj 
bathes  them  with  an  essence  of  "new  mown  hay,"  ha* 
a  manicure  pare  and  paint  his  nails,  swathes  his  mus- 
tache, if  he  should  have  one,  with  pitoulo  cosmetique^ 
burnishes  his  shoes  and  draws  on  a  pair  of  new  galoches  j 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  205 

then  grasping  his  dog-skin  gloves  and  rough  beaver,  he 
cuts  across  lots,  tests  his  agility,  and  with  trembling 
hand  takes  a  strong  turn  at  the  door-pull.  A  negro  ser- 
vant receives  him,  announces  his  call,  takes  the  beaver, 
galoches  and  cane,  when  with  a  graceful  flourish  he  is 
shown  into  the  elaborate  parlor.  But  a  moment  is  wasted 
ere  the  flutter  and  rustle  of  heavy  silk— like  a  brass-band 
heading  a  circus  procession — proclaims  the  grand  entree 
of  his  fair  hostess.  There  is  such  a  smile  on  her  exquis- 
ite face,  while  the  very  air  seems  laden  with  incense,  and 
happiness  and  ecstacy  seem  jingling  in  soft  dulcitude, 
which  so  enraptures  our  congressman  that  he  is  almost 
inclined  to  pull  off  his  brogans  and  dance  a  reel  on  the 
soft  moquette. 

If  there  are  any  persons  remarkable  for  special  quali- 
fications, then  it  must  be  said  that  a  female  lobbyist  is 
the  very  incarnation  of  delicious  phrases,  apt  quotations, 
seductive  sentences,  comfortable  laudations,  and  aromatic, 
appetizing,  tickling,  bliss-creating  rhapsodies,  which 
combine  in  her  conversation  like  the  melodious  chords  of 
a  minstrel's  harp. 

Our  aged  representative  was  never  so  joyful  in  all 
his  life,  but  he  betrays  some  misgivings  when  the  beauti- 
ful creature  who  shames  his  sensitive  ears  arises,  with 
grace  and  caution,  to  pull  down  the  blinds.  There  is 
something  suggestive  in  the  manner  she  adjusts  the  heavy 
damasks,  and  sees  that  there  is  no  treachery  in  the  door- 
locks.  Then  begins  a  coddling  on  her  part,  which 
usually  needs  no  extra  display  to  entice  an  elder  in  Con- 
gress full  half-way. 

It  is  a  decidedly  delicate  occupation — love-making — 
to  young  heads ;  but  old  hearts,  like  old  birds,  know 
pretty  well  how  to  sift  chaff,  and  they  reach  for  conclu- 
s  without  going  miles  out  of  the  way  to  look  at 


206 


MYSTERIES   AXD   MISERIES. 


and  stars,  or  smell  honeysuckles,  and  quote  Lalla  Rookh. 

The  provident  solicitor  has  a  bill  in  her  pocket,  and 

before  our  reverend  legislator  leaves  that  room  she  will 

have  his  signature  to  it,  together  with  a  solemn  pledge 


PREPARING  TO  SIGN  THE  BILL. 

that  he  will  sustain  the  measure  she  proposes  with  his 
vote  and  influence.  What  further  passes  between  the 
beautiful  mistress  and  her  dupe  I  am  not  at  liberty  to 
discuss,  but,' as  a  "  pointer,"  will  say  that  this  first  visit 
is  but  an  "eye-opener"  and  prelude,  so  to  speak,  to 
the  meetings  and  amours  which  follow  between  the  two. 


WASHINGTON  CITT.  207 


CHAPTER  Vin. 

FRAUDULENT  MEASURES  AND    GAMBLING  PRACTICES. 

IT  is  not  alone  through  skilful  pretences,  inveigling 
snares,  and  sensuous  displays  by  astute  female  panderers 
that  our  congressmen  sell  the  small  honor  which  they 
may  possess  upon  entering  public  life,  for  there  are  other 
influences  which  also  quite  confound  them  in  the  mire  of 
corruption.  Those  who  can  resist  the  seductive  ways  of 
wily,  beautiful  women,  or  can  smite  a  hand  that  proffers 
a  bribe,  may  succumb  to  flattery  or  sympathy  ;  but  even 
from  these  resorts  an  appeal  still  lies  to  political  aspira- 
tions, which  involves  an  ambition  that  may  attain  success 
only  through  avenues  of  fraud. 

Among  the  vast  number  of  impudent  schemes  devised 
for  enriching  individuals  at  public  expense,  the  Credit 
Mobilier  stands  out  with  alt  prominence  ;  it  was  a  fraud 
so  colossal  that  the  very  nation  trembled  with  anxious 
solicitude,  and  execrations  from  an  outraged  people 
seemed,  for  a  time,  to  portend  retribution  to  those  who 
had  so  brazenly  robbed  the  national  treasury.  But  the 
clamor  for  righteous  judgment  and  purification  of  the 
public  service  was  no  more  than  firing  a  blank  cartridge  ; 
there  was  no  diminution  in  rascally  bills  which  flood 
Congress,  and  there  was  no  greater  want  of  infamous 
members  to  advocate  such  schemes  than  before. 

During  the  session  of  1880-81  a  measure  was  passed 
by  Congress  that  so  far  transcends  in  importance  the 
Credit  Mobilier  steal,  that  by  comparison  the  one  is  like  a 
wax  taper  burning  beside  an  electric  light ;  reference  is? 


208  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

of  course,  had  to  the  Arrears-of -Pensions  law.  This  most 
audacious  measure  was  proposed  by  a  member  from  Ohio, 
who  had  gubernatorial  aspirations ;  he  was  actuated 
purely  by  the  single  idea  that  the  advocacy  of  such  a  bill 
would  popularize  him  with  the  soldier  constituency  of 
Ohio,  upon  which  he  expected  to  ride  into  the  executive 
office .  When  it  was  offered  for  consideration  in  Congress , 
there  were  few  members  independent  enough  to  oppose 
the  bill,  because  it  was  esteemed  that  such  opposition 
would  incur  hostility  from  ex-soldiers  in  every  section, 
and  thereby  prevent  the  re-election  of  opponents  of  the 
bill.  It  therefore  passed,  with  comparatively  small 
antagonism,  and  is  now  a  plague-spot  on  the  nation. 

The  Credit  Mobilier  filched  from  the  national  treasury 
thirty  millions  of  dollars,  but  the  Arrears-of-Pensions  law 
will  take  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  No  truly 
loyal  person  will  detract  one  word  of  praise  from  the 
soldiers  who  laid  their  sacrifices  on  the  national  altar; 
nor  will  any  patriot  withhold  a  full  measure  of  reward  for 
the  soldier-service  ;  nothing  is  more  just  than  that  those 
who  have  suffered — lost  limb  or  health  ;  or,  dying  upon 
the  battle-field,  or  from  results  of  service,  left  behind  a 
beloved  charge  uncared  for — should  be  remembered  by 
a  grateful  government  with  liberal  pensions.  It  is  not 
this  sentiment  that  prompts  opposition  to  the  bill  referred 
to,  but  because  it  is  notorious  that  it  opens  the  treasury 
doors  to  a  multitude  of  scoundrels  who  have  no  real 
claims  to  pensions,  but  who  secure  large  allowances 
through  perjury  and  the  practice  of  every  conceivable 
villainy.  The  Arrears-of-Pensions  bill  is  so  comprehen- 
sive in  its  looseness  that  every  "  rattling  Dick"  who  had 
the  toe-ache  while  in  actual  service  is  entitled  to  a  pen- 
sion, provided  some  jack-legged  doctor  will  give  him  an 
Affidavit  exaggerating  the  facts.  In  its  operations  the  bill 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  209 

is  a  reflection  upon  those  who  really  deserve  a  generous 
recognition  from  their  country,  and  imposes  a  burden 
which  an  already  tax-ridden  public  can  illy  afford  to 
bear.  To  make  these  assertions  more  emphatic,  the 
following  facts  and  comments  are  herewith  presented  for 
the  consideration  of  intelligent  readers  : 

It  is  stated  by  the  government  statician  that  the 
whole  number  of  troops  furnished  in  the  civil  war  from 
all  the  states  and  territories,  of  all  colors  and  for  all  pe- 
riods of  service,  from  three  months  to  three  years'  time, 
reduced  to  a  uniform  three  years  standard,  amounted  to 
2,320,272.  This  number  included,  of  course,  quarter-mas- 
ters, commissaries,  clerks  and  the  vast  throng  of  mere 
hangers-on,  who  risked  neither  health  nor  life  in  the  ser- 
vice. Of  this  great  aggregate  it  would  probably  be  safe 
to  say  neither  the  health  nor  life  of  more  than  1,500,000 
was  ever  jeopardized  to  the  smallest  degree  by  their  mil- 
itary service. 

When,  therefore,  it  is  stated  that  there  are  now  on  the 
rolls  260,000  pensioners,  or  one-sixth  of  those  who  were 
exposed  for  the  brief  period  of  three  years,  a  fact  is  re- 
vealed which  is  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  wars 
and  the  liberality  of  governments.  But  when  the  further 
statement  is  made  that  there  are  on  file  in  the  pension 
bureau  319,748  unadjusted  claims  for  pensions  growing 
out  of  the  brief  service  named,  not  only  the  wonder  but 
the  indignation  of  tax-payers,  and  of  none  more  • Mian  of 
honest  pensioners  themselves,  should  be  aroused.  And 
the  claimants  still  continue  to  come.  It  is  not  over- 
stating the  facts  to  say  that  we  shall  have  in  the  end 
half  as  many  pensioners  and  claimants  of  pensions  as 
there  were  persons  who  shouldered  guns  in  the  country's 
service. 

The  offense  to  honest  men  in  these  facts,  is  not  that 
14 


210  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

the  number  of  pensioners  is  so  great,  or  that  the  amount 
to  be  paid  is  so  large,  but  it  is  that  so  many  of  the  recip- 
ients of  government  bounty  are  impostors,  and  so  much 
of  the  money  is  fraudulently  obtained.  The  amount  paid 
in  the  last  twenty  years  for  pensions  is  over  $500,000,000, 
and  the  commissioner  now  tells  Congress  that  the  next 
twenty-five  years  will  require  $1,295,729,000,  and  that 
after  that  the  expense  will  still  go  on  at  the  rate  of 
$23,000,000  annually. 

It  is,  however,  more  important  to  devise  some  means 
of  restricting  the  evil  and  shame  than  to  tell  over  and  re- 
pine about  its  enormity.  Since  it  is  plain  to  the  most 
careless  comprehension  that  no  such  number  of  rightful 
pensioners  exists,  the  practical  question  is,  how  is  the 
Government  to  reach  the  real  facts  and  guard  against 
frauds  ?  The  explanation  of  the  dishonest  growth  of  the 
pension  rolls  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  testimony  upon 
which  names  are  entered  and  claims  admitted  is  ex  parte. 
Whoever  has  observed  how  plausibly  and  even  conclu- 
sively almost  anything  may  be  established  and  almost  any 
claim  proven  in  our  courts  or  bef oTe  boards  of  arbitration 
when  but  one  side  is  heard,  will  appreciate  how  wide  open 
the  doors  of  the  treasury  are  thrown  when  claimants  can 
reach  in  on  what  is  virtually  or  absolutely  ex  parte  testi- 
mony. 

If  applicants  for  pensions  had  been  required,  or  were 
now  required  to  file  their  applications  in  the  circuit  courts 
of  the  counties  in  which  they  live,  or  some  local  court  of 
like  jurisdiction  to  that  of  our  state  circuit  courts,  and 
the  state's  attorney  required  to  represent  the  Govern- 
ment in  the  examination  of  witnesses  and  the  testimony 
adduced  in  support  of  their  claims,  and  the  rules  of  law 
and  justice  applied  to  the  case  of  each,  and  the  favorable 
judgment  of  such  courts  demanded  as  a  condition  prece- 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  211 

dent  to  their  allowance  at  Washington,  we  should  have 
few  frauds  to  complain  of.  While  it  might  be  fairly  as- 
sumed that  local  courts  would  be  favorably  inclined  to- 
ward local  claimants,  the  honor  and  reputation  of  judges 
and  the  general  integrity  of  all  our  tribunals  would  afford 
strong  guaranty  against  all  gross  and  flagrant  abuses. 
The  states  would  unquestionably  co-operate  with  the  gen- 
eral government  in  carrying  out  any  regulations  Congress 
might  prescribe  in  making  all  claims  rest  upon  the  judg- 
ment of  the  proper  local  court.  The  ultimate  rights  of 
claimants  could  be  guarded  by  the  right  of  appeal  to 
United  States  courts.  It  is  only  under  some  such  plan  as 
this  that  there  can  be  effectual  examination  of  what  has 
already  been  done  so  loosely  and  that  the  impending  evils 
of  the  future  may  be  avoided  or  palliated. 

I  have  commented  at  some  length  on  this  bill  because 
in  it  we  have  an  illustration  of  the  remarkable  manner  in 
which  the  government  is  robbed  in  order  to  promote  the 
political  aspirations  of  corrupt  candidates. 

There  are  scores  of  measures  which  find  a  ready  pas- 
sage at  every  congressional  session  that  are  as  fraudulent 
in  character  as  the  Arrears-of-Pensions  bill,  and  hundreds 
are  constantly  pending.  All  these  iniquitous  jobs  in  the 
hands  of  venal  legislators  are  entrusted  to  experienced 
bribers  who  have  a  gracious  care  for  susceptible  members. 
The  letting  loose  of  so  much  money  to  control  legislation 
creates  abundant  means  for  expending  it.  Although 
there  are  few  cities  where  extreme  poverty  is  so  marked 
as  in  Washington,  yet  there  are  not  many  cities  where 
wanton  extravagance  is  so  generally  practiced.  Nearly 
every  Capital  official  indulges  in  games  of  chance,  and  as 
every  demand  finds  ready  supply,  there  is  no  affectation 
of  morals  to  prevent  the  establishment  of  faro,  keno, 
poker,  roulette,  turf  and  stock-broking  rooms. 


212  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

Washington  maintains  many  prof essional  gamblers,  but 
they  rarely  come  in  contact  with  the  official  fraternity, 
which  prefers  an  exclusiveness  for  obvious  reasons.  Faro 
and  poker  have  a  majority  of  gaming  votaries,  who  com- 
prise many  of  the  ablest  and  most  popular  senators, 
members,  supreme  judges  and  cabinet  officers.  To  ob- 
tain admission  to  any  of  the  first-class  gambling  rooms, 
patronized  by  aristocratic  officials,  it  is  necessary  to  pro- 
cure a  special  card  or  be  introduced  in  person  by  some 
distinguished  frequenter.  There  is  much  taste  and  lavish 
outlay  exhibited  in  the  furnishing  of  such  establishments, 
while  the  attendants  are  very  chivalrous  in  their  attentions 
to  guests.  Usually,  where  games  of  poker  are  followed 
by  prominent  officers,  the  stakes  rule  high,  so  that  it  is  a 
common  thing  for  thousands  of  dollars  to  pass  hands  in 
a  night  between  two  or  four  opponents.  Where  such 
extravagance  exists,  we  may  reasonably  suspect  the 
source  whence  a  supply  of  means  is  obtained. 

The  evils  of  gambling,  in  dens  which  abound  on  all 
the  principal  streets  of  Washington,  are  most  noticeable 
among  that  class  of  patrons  who  hold  clerical  or  depart- 
mental positions.  These  appointees  are  limited  in  cap- 
ital, so  that  the  gaining  fever  not  infrequently  leads  them 
to  embezzlement  and  forgery.  There  is  no  questioning 
the  fact  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  are  wasted 
at  gambling  tables  every  year  in  Washington ,  that  goes 
to  the  loss  and  gain  account  on  the  national  treasury 
books.  Book-keeping  is  a  great  science  among  depart- 
ment functionaries,  and  if  it  were  possible  for  the  public 
to  have  a  true  accounting  placed  in  contrast  with  the 
accounts  as  submitted,  there  would  be  an  alarm  created 
which  might  precede  an  indignation  that  would  sum- 
marily purge  our  corrupt  offices. 

A  very  melancholy  incident  occurred  at  Washington 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  213 

during  the  year  1881,  which  illustrates  some  of  the  evils 
and  deplorable  sequels  following  the  gambling  habit.  A 
young  married  man,  who  belonged  to  an  aristocratic 
family  before  the  war,  but  was  reduced  to  painful  cir- 
cumstances by  adversities  which  strode  through  the  fair- 
est Southern  homes,  came  to  Washington  as  an  office- 
seeker.  He  had  influential  friends  in  Congress  who  in- 
terested themselves  in  his  behalf,  so  that  a  position 
was  finally  obtained  for  him  in  the  Postal  Department. 
His  wife  was  a  delicate  lady,  possessed  of  many  qualifi- 
cations which  won  esteem  from  a  large  circle  of  acquaint- 
ances, and  though  their  income  was  small,  they  lived 
happily  in  a  cosy  little  cottage  on  I  street. 

Clerical  life  at  the  Capital  never  rises  above  a  monoto- 
nous routine  of  drawing  salary  and  expending  it  again 
for  necessaries  ;  hope  of  accumulation  there  is  none.  To 
those  who  have  once  been  blessed  with  luxuries,  sur- 
rounded by  wealth  and  flattery,  the  experience  of  hard 
fighting  against  poverty  is  exasperatingly  bitter ;  there 
is  a  feeling  of  rebellion  against  self  and  circumstance, 
which  sometimes  dethrones  judgment  and  incites  to  rash- 
ness. This  was  the  condition  in  which  this  young  man 
found  himself  after  the  first  winter  he  spent  in  Washing- 
ton. His  restlessness  was  further  provoked  by  stories 
that  reached  his  ears  from  time  to  time  of  other  clerks 
winning  large  sums  at  the  gaming  table.  After  much 
mental  perturbation  he  at  length  resolved  to  test  his  luck 
at  cards.  Fortune  attended  his  first  efforts,  and  in  this 
fact  is  found  the  poisonous  germ  which  finally  blossomed 
into  a  fatal  infection.  Night  after  night  he  sought  the 
table  where  boon  companions  sat  wooing  the  fickle  god- 
dess, and  as  gradually  losing  all  interest  in  the  home 
comforts  and  pleasures  provided  by  a  devoted  wife.  She 
marked  the  change  that  had  come  over  him,  but  did  not 


214 


MTSTP:IUES  AND  MISERIES 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  215 

reckon  the  cause .  Reverses  soon  came,  and  unprepared  as 
he  was,  they  fell  like  a  blighting  curse  upon  his  head ; 
frenzy  superseded  his  lax  judgment,  and  when  the  small 
monthly  stipend  became  exhausted,  he  had  recourse  to  a 
conversion  of  his  valuables  into  money  by  securing  loans 
at  the  pawn-brokers.  His  fall  became  constantly  more 
rapid,  like  a  body  dropping  from  a  high  altitude  increases 
in  velocity  as  it  descends.  Being  custodian  of  a  small 
fund,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  chance  it,  ever  hoping  that 
his  luck  would  come  back  and  assist  him  to  a  high  pin- 
nacle of  wealth  and  honor.  But  fortune  did  not  come, 
the  last  thing  of  value  in  his  possession  was  wasted,  and 
when  the  dread  realization  of  his  desperate  condition 
came  full  upon  him  the  burden  broke  his  spirit ;  bereft 
of  honor,  manhood  and  every  ambition,  he  resolved  upon 
a  desperate  expedient  to  balance  his  accounts  with  the 
world.  On  the  evening  succeeding  his  discharge  from  a 
position  that  had  afforded  him  but  a  meagre  support, 
well  knowing  that  an  indictment  for  embezzlement  would 
soon  be  entered  against  him,  he  called  his  little  wife  and 
giving  her  a  passionate  kiss,  wooed  her  again  with  love's 
sweet  utterances  as  in  the  spring-time  of  their  favored 
courtship .  She  was  overcome  with  rapture  at  this  change  ; 
she  felt  like  one  who  has  crossed  the  dark  valley  of 
affliction  and  set  foot  in  delicious  bowers  to  find  her  soul's 
idol  therein.  Upon  retiring  at  night  in  their  humble 
quarters,  prayers  were  repeated,  their  souls  were  com- 
mended to  God,  and  she  felt  sanctified  by  the  evening's 
blessings.  When  sleep  had  sealed  her  beautiful  eyes, 
the  wrecked  and  wretched  man  drew  a  pistol  from  under 
his  pillow  and  with  a  whisper,  "  God  forgive  me  and 
have  mercy,"  sent  a  bullet  through  the  heart  that  loved 
him  so  fondly  ;  bent  further  upon  revenging  his  fell  for- 
tune, he  discharged  another  bullet  into  his  own  heart,  so 


216  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

that  eternal  sleep  came  upon  them  in  the  same  hour  and 
upon  the  same  couch. 

On  the  following  day  there  was  a  sight  to  be  witnessed 
in  that  little  cottage  on  I  street  that  might  well  touch  a 
heart  with  pity,  but  the  melancholy  picture  was  greatly 
intensified  by  the  discovery  of  a  letter  that  was  found 
lying  upon  a  shelf  in  the  cottage,  which  read  as  follows  : 

WASHINGTON  CITY, ,  1881. 

To  those  who  can  forgive : 

No  mortal  may  ever  know  the  full  measure  of  grief  until  ex- 
perience— such  as  has  been  mine  to  suffer — steals  upon  them.  I 
have  disgraced  a  mother  whose  very  name  delights  heaven,  and 
a  father  whose  honor  should  have  been  my  aegis ;  I  thank  the 
God  who  seems  to  have  forsaken  me  that  they  are  both  dead  and 
may  not  learn  how  great  has  been  my  transgression.  My  be- 
loved wife  must  never  know  the  evil  which  I  hugged  to  my  bosom 
until  it  stung  my  heart  and  soul.  All  the  world  can  scarce  con- 
tain the  bounty  of  my  love  for  her,  and  that  she  may  not  bear  the 
odium  which  attaches  to  my  name,  I  am  resolved  that  we  shall 
both  die  together;  perhaps  her  beautiful  face  and  innocent  soul 
may  plead  for  my  admission  into  paradise  ;  who  could  resist  the 
boundless  wealth  of  her  purity  and  love  ?  yes,  she  will  pardon  my 
sin  and  kiss  the  hand  that  took  her  life,  and  lifting  up  her  bleed- 
ing heart  to  God  will  pour  the  rich  blood  upon  my  head  and  beg 
Him  to  forgive  me. 

Let  my  name  and  deed  be  forgotten,  for  I  am  mad  and  know 
not  right  from  wrong.  My  only  request  is  that  we  be  buried  to- 
gether in  one  coffin  and  that  no  memorial  chaplet  may  point  our 
grave.  Let  the  spirit  which  liveth  depart  unto  its  own  righteous 
judgment.  . 


CHAPTEE  IX. 


SOCIETY   DIVERTISEMENTS. 


WASHINGTON  is  generally  regarded  as  a  theatrical  grave- 
yard, and  very  few  Thespian  artists  appear  there.  Cap- 
terbury  varieties  meet  with  some  success  because  Capitai 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


217 


tastes  have  a  bent  for  sensational  things,  and  they  will 
feast  on  shows  of  tights  and  sparse  crinoline,  but  starve 
on  legitimate  exhibitions.  The  noticeable  lack  of  public 


amusement  is  compensated  for  by  numerous  private 
theatricals  and  ministerial  balls.  Every  minister  is  ex- 
pected to  give  several  receptions  during  each  winter,  and 
these  are  usually  attended  by  all  le  beau  monde  in  Wash- 


218  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

ington ;  occasionally  some  of  these  ministers  are  recalled 
owing  to  some  flagrant  amour  in  which  they  become  in- 
volved, as  has  been  the  case  recently  with  two  ministers 
representing  the  same  government ;  but  society  at  the 
Capital  is  like  Rip  Van  Winkle  before  St.  George's  Inn, 
"this  time  don't  count."  A  flavor  of  naughtiness  ling- 
ering about  a  minister  is  but  an  element  of  popularity  in 
Washington ,  however  it  may  be  regarded  abroad.  But 
balls  and  receptions  become  monotonous  by  such  fre- 
quent repetition,  so  that  it  is  necessary  to  devise  other 
means  for  amusement  through  the  long,  cold  winter 
evenings.  As  every  lady,  and  most  gentlemen,  too,  ar- 
rogate to  themselves  the  possession  of  some  dramatic 
genius,  private  theatricals  have  become  decidedly  fash- 
ionable with  the  ultra-esthetic  society  people  of  Wash- 
ington. Charades  were  formerly  very  popular,  but  they 
have  been  wholly  discarded  now.  Another  fashionable 
amusement  has  lately  attained  importance  among  the 
ladies,  viz.  :  fencing  matches.  This  is  regarded  with 
special  favor  by  Southern  belles  sojourning  at  the  Capi- 
tal, because  it  has  some  elements  of  chivalry  and  French 
passe  temps,  besides  affording  great  opportunity  for  dis- 
play of  personal  grace.  There  is  much  divertisement  in 
an  exhibition  of  skill  with  foils  between  ladies  who  are  in 
dress,  or,  rather,  undress  ;  arms,  busts  and  limbs  show  to 
much  advantage,  which  enriches  beauty  and  heroizes  the 
participants  before  a  delighted  audience. 

But  receptions,  calisthenics,  wine  suppers,  soirees,  and 
even  intrigues  possess  little  interest  compared  with  some 
of  the  private  theatrical  entertainments  which  are  fre- 
quently given  before  select  audiences  in  magnificent  resi- 
dences of  Washington.  Those  who  engage  in  these  per- 
formances include  none  but  the  creme  de  la  creme  of  so- 
ciety, and  not  infrequently  the  plays  are  the  product  of 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


219 


Washington  authors,  who  generally  draw  their  characters 
from  actual  personals,  thereby  adding  greatly  to  the  ex- 
citement of  the  play. 

Quite  a  sensation  was  created  during  the  winter  of 
1881-2  by  a  production  given  in  Washington  entitled, 


WASHINGTON  BELLES  PRACTICING  THE  CHIVALROUS  ART  OF  FENCING. 

"  Adam  and  Eve."  Such  a  subject  carries  with  it  prom 
ises  of  interest,  but  in  this  case  there  were  several  fea- 
tures of  special  importance  which  caused  expectation  to 
stand  on  tip-toe  until  the  play  was  produced.  These 
abnormal  circumstances  may  be  discussed  as  follows : 
Among  those  who  came  to  Washington  in  December, 


220  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

1881,  was  an  extravagantly  beautiful  young  brunette 
from  Virginia  ;  she  had  several  influential  friends  holding 
official  positions,  and  being  heir  to  a  large  fortune  the 
ambition  possessed  her  to  enter  Capital  society  and  test 
its  attractions.  She  was  received  with  open  arms  by 
Washington's  best  people,  and  not  a  few  young  men  of 
wealth  and  high  official  connection  bestowed  upon  her 
glances  of  delirious  admiration,  but  which  fell  like  darts 
upon  an  armor. 

In  the  early  part  of  January,  1882,  it  was  proposed  by 
some  ultra-fashionables  that  a  dramatic  entertainment  be 
given  at  -  -'s  residence,  and  of  course  the  beautiful 
Virginia  brunette  was  invited  to  take  a  part.  Having  a 
natural  inclination  for  the  stage  she  joyously  assented,  and 
a  cast  of  character  having  been  chosen  it  was  decided  that 
"  Adam  and  Eve "  should  be  the  play.  The  piece  was 
written  by  a  peripatetic  Bohemian  who  had  been  in  Wash- 
ington long;  enough  to  know  its  weaknesses,  and  by  some 

O  O  O  t/ 

skill  in  paraphrasing  he  produced  in  "Adam  and  Eve"  a 
lampoon  which  struck  hard,  and  yet  bore  the  appearance 
of  unconscious  offense. 

Every  one  of  those  who  had  been  indulging  forbidden 
appetites  was  satirized,  and  yet  in  such  a  style  of  double- 
entendre  that  the  real  meaning  was  apparent  only  to  the 
one  suggested.  In  other  words,  it  was  a  stroke  at  each 
afflicted  conscience,  exposing  each  one  to  themselves 
only. 

The  aesthetic  craze  had  just  attacked  Washington,  and 
in  pursuing  the  beautiful  it  was  esteemed  essential  that 
faithful  detail  should  be  adhered  to.  Therefore,  when  it 
came  to  the  make-up  of  Adam  and  Eve  there  was  some 
difficulty  experienced  in  presenting  them  as  Genesis 
describes.  On  one  point  there  was  a  general  agreement, 
viz.  :  that  the  two  leading  characters  first  appeared  in 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


221 


scanty  garb  ;  in  fact,  without  any  wardrobe  worth  con- 
sidering. But,  though  there  is  an  admitted  wide  latitude 
to  Capital  morals,  none  could  seriously  discuss  the  pro- 
priety of  appearing  so  flagrantly  bald.  A  compromise 


THE  DRAMA  OF  ADAM  AND  EVE. 


was  made  at  length  by  dressing  Eve  in  an  embroidered 
corselet  which  was  ornamented  by  a  fig-leaf  tracing,  and 
leaving  sufficient  exposure  to  form  a  reasonable  judgment 
of  the  whole ;  Adam,  however,  .being  naturally  less 
modest,  in  order  that  his  vestment  might  suggest  primeval 


222  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

creation,  and  perhaps  getting  a  hint  from  John  the  Bap- 
tist, doffed  all  his  clothes  and  wrapped  a  tiger's  skin 
about  his  body,  securing  it  by  tying  the  corners  over  his 
left  shoulder.  The  other  characters  were  less  particular 
in  literalness,  and  consequently  attracted  much  less  at- 
tention. 

In  the  second  scene,  while  Eve  was  beguiling  Adam  to 
taste  of  a  bright  red  apple  which  she  held  out  so  tempt- 
ingly, by  a  most  unfortunate  accident  Adam  chanced  to 
tread  on  one  of  the  pending  tiger  legs,  and  in  the  next 
instant  there  was  a  sight  which  chilled  Satan  and  set  the 
audience  on  its  beam-ends.  The  shoulder  fastening  was 
broken,  and  having  nothing  now  to  stay  its  descent,  the 
skin  fell  limp  at  Adam's  feet,  leaving  him  in  a  state  of 
nudity  as  though  he  had  just  been  cast  from  Creation's 
mould.  Eve  showed  her  heels  for  all  the  world  like 
a  frightened  prairie-dog  diving  into  its  hole,  while 
Adam  forgot  Eden  as  he  plunged  through  a  paper 
screen,  ran  through  a  bevy  of  astonished  girls  who 
had  huddled  in  the  wings,  and  brought  up  at  the  property- 
room  in  a  state  of  exhaustion,  if  not  of  delirium  tremens. 
This  overwhelming  mortification  was  not  alone  notice- 
able upon  Adam  and  Eve,  for  the  audience  was  dazed 
with  astonishment,  with  many  indications  that  they 
were  just  getting  really  interested,  especially  with  the 
graceful  contour  presented  by  our  most  ancient  pro- 
genitor. But  notwithstanding  the  absorbing  interest 
which  this  minor  incident  precipitated,  the  curtain  went 
down  without  rising  again  that  night. 

It  was  stated,  and  is  still  declared,  that  the  gentleman 
and  lady  who  attempted  to  amuse  Washington's  upper- 
tendom  in  the  characters  of  Adam  and  Eve,  had  ex- 
changed hy menial  vows  and  were  to  have  been  married 
the  week  following  this  doubly  unfortunate  incident,  but 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


223 


our  beautiful  Virginia  belle  renounced  her  vows  and  has 
ever  since  refused  to  meet  the  Adam  who  gave  such  a 
literal  exhibition  of  his  naturalness. 

Wine  suppers  are  next  to  private  theatricals  in  pop- 


A  PRIVATE  WINE  AND  GAMBLING  ROOM. 

uiarity  with  Washington's  Jiaut  ton.  These  are  usually 
given  at  Welcker's  or  Wormley's,  the  fashionable  res- 
taurateurs, who  are  to  the  Capital  what  Delmonico  is  to 
New  York.  Attached  to  each  of  these  establishments 
are  several  private  rooms  all  opening  into  a  main  salon, 


224  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

and  so  arranged  that  both  privacy  and  comfort,  either  to 
couples  or  a  large  company,  are  secured.  Those  who 
indulge  bibulous  or  gambling  habits  find  at  these  places 
fine  wines  and  beautiful  women  to  regale  sporting  appe- 
tites, so  that  many  of  the  most  noted  scandals  in  Wash- 
ington, high  life  had  their  beginning  in  these  secluded 
palaces  of  vice. 

It  is  next  to  impossible  for  a  man  to  follow  politics 
successfully  without  being  a  votary  of  the  cup  ;  notwith- 
standing this  political  peculiarity,  there  are  comparatively 
few  public  saloons  at  Washington,  their  absence  being 
due  entirely  to  the  private  manner  in  which  officials  in- 
dulge their  propensities.  Sessions  of  Congress  are  some- 
times distinguished  for  the  prevalence  of  drunkenness 
among  members,  and  the  savage  personal  rencontres  in 
debate  which,  follow  as  a  consequence. 

A  new  and  very  profitable  profession  has  recently 
sprung  up  among  women  who  have  charms  and  skill, 
but  little  else  to  recommend  them  to  favors, — though 
these  two  are  quite  sufficient  for  females  who  are  'willing 
to  make  the  most  of  them.  These  new  accomplishments 
consist  in  touching  up  black  eyes  or  giving  a  flushed  col- 
oring to  faded  cheeks  and  wrinkled  brows.  The  gentle- 
man who  may  have  emerged  from  an  encounter  with 
discolored  optics  need  not  now  seek  the  service  of  a 
leech-keeper  as  formerly,  for  many  handsome  artists 

can  be  found  in  Washington   to  cover   blemishes  with 

\    ° 

paint  and  brush,  doing  the  work  so  artistically,  too,  that 
nature  is  completely  counterfeited. 

Manicures  also  flourish  at  the  Capital,  their  profession 
being  supported  by  proud  ladies  and  a  few  supercilious 
congressmen.  They  clean  finger-nails  and  impart  to 
them  such  beautiful  pink  embellishments  that  the  delicate 
digit  tips  appear  like  red  rose-buds.  Lips,  teeth  andt 


WASHINGTON  CITY. 


225 


cheeks  are  also  cultivated  by  these  professionals,  whose 
harvest  is  always  bountiful. 
Nothing  is     omitted  in  Washington  that  will  heighten 


RESTORING  THE  NATURAL  COLOR  TO  A  BRUISED  EYE. 

the  charms  of  women  or  men,  for  the  very  atmosphere 
seems  impregnated  with  vanity  and  deception.  Compar- 
atively few  congressmen  maintain  their  wives  in  Wash- 
ington, because  they  comprehend  the  demoralization 
which  attends  official  life  and  Capital  society ;  of  course, 
15 


226  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

there  are  many  officials  who  refuse  to  bring  their  wives 
to  the  seat  of  national  government  because  the  presence 
of  a  domestic  partner  would  be  a  restraint  upon  their 
passions,  and  out  off  the  elective  franchise  peculiar  to 
congressional  and  departmental  life  ;  but  many  others  are 
influenced  by  honorable  considerations,  those  who  de- 
light in  the  purity  of  their  wives  and  daughters,  and  can 
appreciate  the  blighting  temptations  to  which  society 
women  at  the  Capital  arc  exposed. 

I  have  attempted  to  sketch,  in  the  foregoing  chapters 
on  Washington  life,  some  of  the  more  flagrant  evils  which 
disfigure  and  disparage  our  national  representatives  and 
the  practices  which  exist  by  their  sufferage  and  encourage- 
ment. The  shadows  are  very  dark,  but  no  darker  than 
the  object  of  obscuration ;  the  devil  can  hardly  be 
painted  blacker  than  his  raiment,  and  this  observation 
may  apply  with  truthfulness  to  Capital  society.  The 
baneful  influences  of  corruption  and  personal  aggrandize- 
ment produce  social  ills  with  all  the  naturalness  that  the 
sun  promotes  vegetable  growth.  Laws  are  essential  and 
legislators  are  necessary,  and  yet  each  has  been  a  curse 
upon  mankind.  If  it  were  possible  to  choose  only  incor- 
ruptible, wise  and  philanthropical  law-makers  crime 
would  not  only  diminish  and  patriotism  increase,  but 
verily  peace  and  good  will  to  man  would  become  uni- 
versal throughout  the  nation.  Unfortunately  the  prac- 
tice has  obtained  of  selecting  the  least  worthy  men  to  till 
the  nation's  offices,  making  political  influence  a  test  of 
fitness  without  regarding  capability  and  honesty.  Since 
this  is  manifestly  true  we  can  no  more  expect  purity  and 
efficiency  in  the  nation's  service  than  to  look  for  a  river 
flowing  above  its  source. 

I  have  not  exaggerated  a  single  feature  of  Washington 
life,  nor  have  I  fulsomely  illuminated  any  picture  drawn 


WASHINGTON  CITY.  227 

in  illustration  of  official  scandals ;  the  few  herein  re- 
hearsed are  no  ideal  coinage  ;  but  are  literally  true,  and 
in  fact  susceptible  of  a  much  louder  description.  Yet, 
mindful  of  the  poison  which  scandal  injects  like  the  fangs 
of  a  viper,  I  have  avoided  any  mention  of  names  or  in- 
sinuations which  might  publicly  expose  those  whose 
crimes  and  libidinous  liaisons  are  referred  to  ;  the  pur- 
pose of  this  work,  which  is  to  bring  to  public  attention 
the  gross  abuses  practiced  by  corrupt  servants  at  Wash- 
ington, can  be  accomplished  without  traducing  any  man 
or  woman  ;  it  is  better  to  let  them  understand  that  there 
is  an  all  observing  eye  peering  into  the  most  secret  places, 
and  that  no  act,  however  carefully  concealed,  can  escape 
discovery. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  are  noble  women  and 
honest  officials  in  Washington ;  on  such  as  these  no  as- 
persion is  cast  herein,  and  they  will  only  be  thankful  for 
this  exposure  ;  none  but  the  guilty  will  except  to  the  pic- 
tures I  have  drawn,  and  to  these  no  apology  shall  be 
offered . 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


CHAPTER  I . 

DISCOVERY    AND    EAELY  SETTLEMENT. 

THERE  was  never  story  more  entertaining  or  instruct- 
ive than  the  tales  of  history  told  by  those  adventurous 
Argonauts  who  sought  fortune  in  California  "in  the 
days  of  '49. "  Repeated  though  a  thousand  times,  yet 
they  never  lose  their  freshness,  but  seem  to  grow  more 
beautiful  with  age.  America,  the  country  that  has  given 
such  opportunities  for  explorations  and  adventure  ;  a  na- 
tion distinguished  for  inherent  bravery  and  disposition  of 
its  mercurial  people  to  decide  fortune  by  the  toss  of  a 
penny,  gives  to  history,  in  recording  the  struggles  of 
California  pioneers,  the  most  marvellous  of  all  its  pages  ; 
over  these  fascinating  records  every  American  delights  to 
ponder,  and  the  memory  of  those  hardy  adventurers 
steals  up  to  all  of  us  like  seme  beautiful  vision  whenever 
national  progress  is  considered. 

All  that  portion  of  America  bordering  on  the  Pacific 
Ocean  was,  up  to  1848,  the  subject  of  much  contention 
growing  out  of  titles  by  discovery  and  purchase.  The 
Portuguese,  previous  to  the  discovery  of  America  in  1492, 
had  discovered  the  Azore  Islands,  in  consequence  of 
which  all  the  discoveries  made  by  Columbus  were  claimed 
to  belong  to  the  Portuguese  crown,  and  Spanish  subjects 
were  forbidden  to  occupy  them.  Spain  grew  very  angry 
229 


230 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


at  this  assumption  of  possession,  but  the  matter  in  dis- 
pute was  arbitrated  by  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  who  was 
recognized  as  the  ultimate  source  of  all  temporal  power. 
His  decision  was  rendered  on  the  3d  of  May,  1493,  which 
decreed  that  all  countries  inhabited  by  infidels,  already, 
or  which  might  be  discovered  by  the  Spanish  one  hundred 
leagues  west  of  the  Azores,  should  be  granted  to  Spain, 
and  countries  lying  east  of  this  imaginary  line  should  be- 
long to  Portugal.  Subsequently  England,  under  Henry 
VII.,  attempted  to  gain  possession  of  a  portion  of  this 
territory  from  Spain,  but  the  Pope  issued  a  bull  forbidding 
any  transfer  of  title.  The  chain  of  title  to  California 
was :  first,  by  discoveries  of  Spain  and  Portugal ;  second, 
by  the  decree  of  Pope  Alexander  granting  the  territory 
to  Spain ;  third,  from  Spain  to  Mexico  by  revolution, 
and  lastly,  from  Mexico  to  the  United  States,  which  was 
the  result  -of  conquest  and  treaty.  This  latter  treaty, 
which  ceded  New  Mexico  and  California  to  the  United 
States,  was  dated  at  the  city  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  Feb- 
ruary 2,  1848.  It  was  ratified  by  the  United  States  in 
March  following,  and  on  July  4th  the  title  was  made  com- 
plete by  Presidential  proclamation. 

Long  prior  to  the  accession  of  California  Americans 
had  affected  a  lodgement  in  that  territory  and  were  mak- 
ing fair  progress  in  building  up  a  settlement  near  San 
Francisco  Bay.  There  were  several  Catholic  Missions  on 
the  coast,  that  prospered  finely  by  raising  oranges  and 
grapes,  which  were  shipped  to  Spain  in  a  sailing  vessel 
that  paid  an  annual  visit  to  these  lonesome  shores.  The 
climate  was  so  delightful,  the  soil  so  rich,  and  nature  was 
so  bountiful,  even  \rith  uncultivated  products,  that  the 
penetrating  spirit  of  Americans  was  not  slow  in  discover- 
ing the  natural  advantages  of  the-  country,  and  securing 
them  by  squatter  sovereignty. 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


231 


Commodore  Wilkes,  who,  with  a  fleet  of  six  ships, 
explored  the  Pacific  Ocean  under  authority  of  the  United 
States  government,  from  1838  to  1841,  was  the  first 
American  to  make  an  elaborate  report  on  the  climate  and 
soil  of  California,  and  his  descriptions  of  that  favored 
country  were  so  flattering  that  forthwith  an  interest  was 


OLD  CITY  HOTEL,  1846,  CORNER   OF  KEARNEY  AND   CLAY  STREETS. 
(First  Hotel  in  San  Francisco.) 

created  which  led  to  a  rapid  settlement  of  the  territory. 

Col.  John  C.  Fremont  was  the  first  person  to  make  an 
overland  trip  to  the  coast,  and  it  was  he  who  marked  out 
a  highway  that  soon  filled  with  brawny  pioneers,  braving 
every  peril  to  reach  the  new  Eldorado. 

Yerba  Buena — now  San  Francisco — was  located  as 
early  as  1776,  but  it  was  scarcely  any  more  than  a  land- 
ing place  for  the  Spanish  vessel  that  came  every  year  to 
take  away  the  Mission  products. 


232  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

In  1846  San  Francisco,  which  received  its  name  in 
honor  of  St.  Francis,  contained  a  Mexican  population  of 
about  two  hundred  souls,  and  it  had  no  business  inter- 
course with  the  outside  world.  It  was  during  this  year  that 
the  first  Yankee  ship — the  Brooklyn ,  from  New  York — 
entered  San  Francisco  Bay,  except  vessels  sent  out  for 
discovery.  This  ship  brought  two  hundred  and  thirty 
Mormons,  who  came  to  California  for  the  purpose  of 
founding  a  settlement,  but  owing  to  adverse  influences 
they  did  not  remain  long  on  the  coast. 

After  the  Brooklyn's  arrival,  the  town  began  to  pros- 
per rapidly,  and  in  1848  there  were  twT>  hundred  houses 
in  the  place,  giving  shelter  to  a  population  of  eight  hun- 
dred persons.  A  public  school  was  opened  in  April, 
1848,  and  about  the  middle  of  November  following,  the 
first  steamer  that  ever  came  in  sight  of  San  Francisco 
landed  at  the  city  with  about  twenty  adventurous  passen- 
gers. It  was  during  this  year  that  the  most  important 
event  in  California  history  occurred,  the  discovery  of 
gold.  It  was  not  until  one  year  later,  however,  that  any 
special  excitement  was  created,  because  the  discovery  was 
not  of  a  character  to  inspire  great  faith  in  those  who  had 
accidentally  unearthed  the  precious  metal. 

In  the  fall  of  1847,  Captain  John  A.  Sutter,  who  had 
first  emigrated  to  San  Francisco  in  1839,  being  pleased 
with  the  prospects  of  California,  decided  to  erect  a  saw- 
mill in  the  Coloma  Valley,  on  American  Eiver,  fifty  miles 
east  of  where  Sacramento  City  now  stands.  James  W. 
Marshall  was  employed  to  build  the  mill,  and  it  was  this 
gentleman  to  whose  luck  San  Francisco  owes  her  proud 
fortune.  As  the  mill  was  to  be  run  by  water  power,  it 
became  necessary  to  cut  a  tail-race  in  order  to  obtain  a 
flow  of  water  sufficiently  rapid  for  power  purposes. 
When  the  mill-course  was  completed,  a  large  and  swift 


SAN  FKANCISCO. 


233 


volume  of  water  poured  through,  which,  by  attrition, 
wore  away  the  earth  rapidly  and  exposed  a  substrata 
which  was  impregnated  by  shining  particles,  that  upon 
examination  proved  to  be  gold.  This  discovery  occurred 
on  the  19th  day  of  January,  1848,  and  about  two  weeks 


SUITER'S  MILL,  WHERE  MARSHALL  DISCOVERED  THE  FIRST  GOLD  IN 
CALIFORNIA,  JANUARY  19,  1848. 

later  Marshall  found  a  nugget  weighing  six  penny- 
weights, which  he  carried  to  Mr.  Sutter,  but  the  latter 
gentleman  pronounced  it  a  valueless  pyrite.  Knowing 
nothing  of  metallurgy,  Marshall  accepted  Sutter 's  opinion 
as  correct,  and  the  gold  thereafter  found  was  cast  aside 
as  a  base  article. 

In  March,  1848,  an  old  gold  miner  from  Georgia — 
Isaac  Humphrey — saw  the  nugget  brought  to  San  Fran- 


234  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

cisco  by  Sutler,  and  knowing  it  to  be  gold,  he  forthwith 
started  for  the  mill,  despite  the  ridicule  his  action  pro- 
voked. Directly  after  his  arrival  at  Butter's  mill,  Hum- 
phrey commenced  prospecting,  and  his  labor  was  re- 
warded by  finding  gold  in  large,  paying  quantities. 

Such  excitement  as  followed  this  second  discovery  can 
never  be  imagined ,  much  less  truthfully  described .  All  the 
workmen  about  Colo  ma  dropped  their  tools,  and  as  though 
frenzied  by  the  prospect,  plunged  into  American  river, 
and  began  scratching  in  the  auriferous  sands.  Mr.  Sut- 
ler's mill  was  abandoned  so  suddenly  that  it  was  suffered 
to  rattle  itself  into  pieces  ;  animals  went  unfed,  men 
forgot  to  eat  or  sleep,  and  every  usual  duty  was  sub- 
ordinated to  the  one  overwhelming  ambition.  From  five 
to  fifty  dollars  a  day  was  taken  out  in  dust  and  nuggets 
by  each  miner,  and  while  this  was  as  nothing  compared 
with  the  result  of  subsequent  discoveries,  yet  it  was  quite 
enough  to  inflame  the  people  of  California.  There  was  little 
delay  in  getting  the  news  to  San  Francisco,  where  it  struck 
the  citizens  like  a  cyclone.  From  town  to  settlement  the 
report  spread  as  though  on  electric  wings,  and  everywhere 
it  produced  the  same  effect,  intoxicating  everyone  and 
causing  business  to  suspend  as  if  suddenly  paralyzed. 
Wage-laborers,  who  had  been  content  with  one  dollar  per 
day,  could  not  be  restrained  with  offers  of  fifty  times 
that  amount.  Dry-goods  and  grocery  stores,  saloons, 
butcher-shops,  and  lastly  the  newspapers  in  San  Francisco 
suspended,  being  locked  up  while  the  proprietors  sought 
fortune  around  Sutler's  mill,  which  became  a  Mecca  for 
every  Calif ornian.  Horses,  oxen,  jackasses,  and  wagons 
of  all  descriptions,  rose  to  a  value  never  since  dreamed 
of,  except  during  the  civil  war,  when  contrabands  and 
refugees  sought  safety  in  precipitate  flight.  But  a  horse 
was  a  fortune  during  this  peaceful  and  yet  most  exciting 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


235 


time  ;  in  fact,  anything  that  would  provide  transportation 
possessed  an  exaggerated  value. 

But  still  the  wonder  grew,  for  the  very  air  seemed  to 
carry,  these  golden  stories  and  deposit  them  at  every 
threshold.  All  over  America  it  spread  like  an  uncon- 
trollable epidemic,  and  workshops,  stores  and  professions 
succumbed  to  its  exhilarating  influence.  The  discovery 
was  soon  proclaimed  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  and  the 
gravest  dignitaries  rose  from  their  seats  to  add  a  shout, 
and  join  in  the  excitement.  Thousands  of  men  united  in 
caravans  and  made  that  long,  two-thousand-mile  journey 
with  ox-teams,  fighting  their  way  through  savage  Indians, 
braving  the  desperate  elements,  carving  out  their  road 
over  mountains,  through  canons,  in  alkali  deserts,  sub- 
sisting on  game  and  excitement.  But  the  news  traversed 
oceans  and  lands  alike ;  all  the  five  races  of  mankind, 
from  every  point  in  Europe,  Asia,  Australia  and  South 
America,  hordes  of  fortune-seekers,  canvassed  their  pos- 
sessions and,  by  ship,  sloop  and  shallop,  they  crossed 
watery  wastes  and  poured  into  California. 

From  across  the  deep  sea  came  a  strange  people,  the 
seal  of  whose  national  exclusiveness  had  never  been 
broken  until  touched  by  the  magic  news  of  gold  in  the 
sands  of  California.  The  similarity  of  their  physical 
peculiarities,  those  distinguishing  characteristics  seen  in 
their  long,  coarse,  black  hair,  braided  into  a  single  cue, 
which  streamed  down  their  backs,  the  shaven  crown, 
black,  almond-eye,  copperish  face,  strange  habiliments, 
and  sandaled  feet,  all  told  of  a  race  whose  primeval  order 
had  never  been  invaded  by  any  foreign  branch  of  the 
human  race.  In  silent,  sullen  mood,  without  interpreting 
the  sound  of  any  of  the  nationalities  with  which  they 
were  now  associated,  or  being  able  to  convey  a  single 
thought  or  wish  to  any  save  their  own  people,  yet  they, 


236 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


with  kettles,  rice,  Joss-gods  and  chop-sticks,  joined  in 
the  fast  lengthening  procession  of  beings  who  had  set 
their  faces  toward  the  land  of  gold.  Their  industry 
was  phenomenal,  their  patience  most  praiseworthy,  and 


none  deserved  success  more  than  these,  who,  with  all 
their  inherent  virtues,  were  the  subjects  most  despised 
and  wronged  by  those  in  competition  with  them. 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  237 


CHAPTER  II, 


WITH  the  immigration  of  that  immeasurable  host  of 
gold  seekers,  everything  in  Calif ornia  changed  from  a  lazy 
existence  into  frantic  delirium  ;  men  lost  every  idea  save 
that  which  prompted  their  immediate  pilgrimage  to 
Coloma  valley.  This  little  spot  that  had  slept  in  primeval 
rest  since  creation — a  wilderness  whose  most  active 
sounds  were  the  growls  of  wild  beasts,  the  caution 
signal  of  myriads  of  rattle-snakes,  and  the  songs  of 
native  birds — was  transformed,  as  in  a  night,  into  a  hive 
of  industry  swarming  with  an  anxious  multitude  whose 
accoutrements  were  prospecting  pans,  shovels,  crevice- 
knives  and  rockers. 

But  discovery  was  not  confined  to  Coloma  valley,  for 
as  the  population  increased  prospectors  appeared  in  large 
numbers  and  very  soon  discoveries  began  to  break  out 
like  forming  pustules  on  the  face  of  a  small-pox  patient. 
Gold,  gold,  everywhere,  and  the  excitement  became  so 
intense  that  for  one  year  it  appeared  as  though  the  whole 
world  was  bent  on  emigrating  to  the  coast. 

"The  excitement  of  the  gold  discovery  in  1848  had,  up 
to  January  1,  1849,  more  than  doubled  the  population  of 
California.  At  this  period  the  total  population  was  esti- 
mated at  twenty-six  thousand — thirteen  thousand  natives, 
eight  thousand  Americans,  and  five  thousand  of  all  other 
nations.  During  the  year  1848,  ten  million  dollars  in 
gold  had  been  extracted  from  the  mines,  principally  from 
the  Yuba,  Feather  and  American  rivers,  and  the  gulches 
thereabout. 


238 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


A  COMMON  SCENE  IN  EARLY  DAYS  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


239 


"In  San  Francisco  and  throughout  the  country  the  ex- 
citement was  intense  ;  but,  up  to  the  spring  of  1849,  it 
was  confined  to  the  small  population  on  the  coast,  most 
of  whom  had  been  in  California  for  many  years." 

But  in  the  spring  of  1849  there  was  a  new  stimulus. 
San  Francisco  had  a  population  of  two  thousand  on  the 


EMIGRANT   TRAIN — :GOLD    HUNTERS    1849. 

1st  of  January  of  that  year,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  pre- 
paring to  begin  mining  immediately  after  the  rainy 
season  passed.  Already  the  ocean  was  dotted  with  cos- 
mopolitan sails  all  bulging  toward  the  golden  land. 
Strong  and  treacherous  ships  were  alike  buffetting  the 
swells  and  gales  about  Cape  Horn.  The  eager  Yankee, 
with  pick  and  pistol,  was  breaking  his  way  through  mias- 


240  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

ma-tic  swamps  and  jungles  at  the  Isthmus,  while  vast 
caravans  were  trudging  tediously  over  the  long  stretch  of 
plains  and  through  gates  of  the  almost  impassable 
Rockies. 

On  the  28th  of  February  following  the  pioneer  steam- 
ship of  the  ocean  line  of  American  passenger  ships,  The 
California,  landed  at  San  Francisco  from  New  York, 
which  wras  followed  by  hundreds  of  others,  all  freighted 
with  excited  human  souls  with  visions  of  gold  ever  float- 
ing in  beautiful  panorama  before  them. 

"  The  floodgates  of  commerce  and  population  were 
now  open,  and  through  them  poured  a  deluge  of  men 
upon  the  village  of  San  Francisco,  which  at  that  time 
contained  a  few  adobe  and  frame  houses  about  the  beach 
and  feet  of  the  sand-hills.  Ships  were  daily  arriving 
with  full  cargoes  of  merchandise :  no  wharves,  ware- 
houses, stores,  streets,  offices,  lumber,  or  labor  were  to 
be  had  at  any  price.  July,  1849,  found  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco  filling  with  the  ships  of  every  nation,  and  the 
Golden  Gate  received  a  continuous  stream  of  shipping. 
The  flags  of  every  nation,  with  the  peculiar  marine  arch- 
itecture, customs,  and  language  of  the  new-comers,  lent 
a  romantic  aspect  to  a  scene  fearfully  wild  and  disor- 
dered, in  consequence  of  "the  haste  and  anxiety  of  all  to 
start  for  the  mines  ;  for  now  the  most  fabulous  stories, 
with  the  fact  of  the  arrival  of  millions  of  dollars  in  gold- 
dust,  wrought  the  public  mind  into  a  feverish  delirium. 
Five  hundred  square-rigged  vessels  lay  in  the  harbor, 
with  half  a  mile  of  mud-flats  between  them  and  high- 
water  mark — Montgomery  street ;  but  one  wharf,  Broad- 
way, to  accommodate  this  fleet.  Agents  and  consignees 
of  these  valuable  ships  and  cargoes  found  the  crews 
(sometimes  including  officers)  taking  to  the  small  boats  as 
soon  as  the  anchor  was  dropped,  and  head  for  the  Sacra- 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


241 


mento  river  toward  the  new  diggings.  Lighters,  scows 
and  boats  had  to  land  these  cargoes,  but  what  could  be 
done?  Of  the  few  conveyances  of  this  character,  none 
could  be  had  but  at  fabulous  prices.  Laborers  who,  a 
year  ago,  would  have  been  glad  to  have  received  one  dol- 


lar and  a-half  a  day,  now  demanded  from  twenty  to 
thirty  dollars.  There  were  no  laborers  ;  one  man  was  as 
good  as  another — they  were  '  in  a  free  country ; '  who 
would  labor  for  hire,  when  he  could  go  to  the  mines  and 
become  a  millionaire  ?  Still  they  came ;  more  ships, 
more  people  ;  no  room,  no  lodgings,  no  lumber,  nobody 
16 


242  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

to  saw  lumber ;  no  forests  supposed  to  be  in  the  country, 
nobody  thinking  about  forests .  Carpenters ,  blacksmiths , 
teamsters,  clerks,  sailors,  or  soldiers,  as  soon  as  they 
touched  land — all  became  miners.  Ho  !  for  the  mines  ! 

"  The  scramble  now  became  powerfully  intense  ;  every- 
body on  the  run  unless  stuck  in  the  mud  or  deep  sand. 
Off  came  the  coats  of  the  merchants,  speculators,  doc- 
tors, and  preachers,  carrying,  lugging,  wheeling  boxes, 
goods,  and  boards,  erecting  tents  of  canvas  and  old  sails, 
tin,  raw-hides,  blankets,  and  even  of  body  clothing. 
The  stove-pipe  hat,  black  clothes,  and  white  shirt  gave 
way  to  the  slouch-hat  and  gray  shirt.  Eazors  were  out 
of  use  :  no  time  to  shave.  Goods  selling  at  any  prices  ; 
sometimes  at  rates  making  a  fortune  for  the  owner, 
again  at  prices  which  brought  him  to  the  verge  of  ruin. 

"The  sand-hills  and  mud-flats  now  presented  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  battle-field ;  people  of  every  nation,  cos^ 
tume,  tongue,  and  clime,  in  the  busy  and  excited  crowd, 
hauling,  running,  trading,  buying,  selling,  building, 
drinking,  fretting,  cursing,  laughing,  dancing,  weeping, 
and  doing  a  little  of  every  thing  under  the  sun  but  pray- 
ing ;  all  seemed  to  flounder  about  in  supreme  reckless- 
ness. The  tailor,  shoemaker,  and  clerk  awkwardly 
pulled  at  the  heavy  oar  to  move  the  lumbering,  freighted 
scow  deserted  by  the  sailors,  now  on  their  way  to  the 
mines ;  the  judge  sweating  and  chafing,  as  with  judicial 
invectives  he  levied  his  quo  warranto  upon  a  refractory 
mule  belly-deep  in  mire,  in  the  legitimate  exercise  of  his 
hereditary  prerogative  of  backing  out  of  a  bad  job  ;  the 
doctor  refusing  to  see  the  results  of  his  emetics.  Shov- 
els, boots,  blankets,  prospecting-pans,  butcher-knives, 
bacon,  gray  shirts,  whiskey,  aud  tobacco  were  in  great 
demand.  Gold  sixteen  dollars  per  ounce,  weighed  on 
the  coffee-scales,  steelyards,  or  *  hefted  '  in  the  hand.' ' 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


243 


The  first  six  months  of  1849  added  more  than  fifteen 
thousand  to  the  population  of  California,  ten  thousand 
of  whom  landed  in  San  Francisco  ;  less  than  two  hundred 
of  this  number  were  women,  and  their  character  may 
readily  be  imagined.  The  best  ships  were  abandoned  by 


POST   OFFICE,  CORNER   OF   CLAY   AND   PIKE   STREETS,  SAN    FRANCISCO    1849. 

their  crews  as  soon  as  they  landed  in  the  bay.  A  small 
boat  was  worth  more  than  a  ship,  because  in  the  former 
a  voyage  could  be  made  up  the  Sacramento  river  and 
near  to  the  mines.  Dories,  yawls,  dugouts,  barges, 
were  all  filled  with  gold-seekers  and  laden  with  such 
provisions  and  tools  as  could  be  obtained,  and  directed 
up  the  Sacramento.  Everyone  assisted  in  propelling  the 


244  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

craft  that  carried  them,  some  using  oars,  others  shovels, 
tin-pans,  paddles,  etc. 

The  up-river  parties,  on  meeting  a  boat  coming  down 
stream  would  instantly  form  the  supposition  that  the  re- 
turning crew  had  collected  millions  of  wealth,  and  were 
going  back  to  the  States  to  enjoy  their  newly-found 
riches.  An  inquiry  respecting  the  mines  would  always 
elicit  a  most  flattering  answer — "that  all  they  had  to  do 
was  to  go  up  and  till  their  bags,"  generally  directing  them 
to  some  place  perhaps  never  heard  of  before,  or  noted 
for  its  poverty.  In  evidence  of  their  own  success,  they 
would  call  the  attention  of  the  new-comers  to  several 
canvas  sacks  in  the  bottom  of  their  boat ;  these  generally 
were  filled  with  a  heavy  black  sand  intended  for  the  eyes 
of  the  up-river  crews,  and  only  served  as  ballast,  being 
worthless.  On  beholding  these  bags  the  eyes  of  the  up- 
river  crews  were  frequently  seen  to  start  in  their  sockets  ; 
unintelligible  sounds  were  heard  to  proceed  from  their 
throats  as  they  plunged  their  oars,  shovels,  pans,  clippers, 
and  legs  into  the  water,  while  heading  toward  Sacra- 
mento. These  bags  thus  afforded  some  compensation  to 
the  disappointed  returning  crews. 

Mining  was  not  confined  to  the  Yuba,  American  and 
Feather  rivers,  but  spread  over  the  entire  field  of  the 
ravines,  gulches  and  streams  of  the  foot-hills,  and  up  to 
the  Sierras,  many  of  the  locations  yielding  immense  for- 
tunes of  pure  gold  with  but  little  effort  or  mechanical 
appliances.  More  than  forty  million  dollars  were  ob- 
tained in  the  year  1849;  and,  from  January  19,  1848, 
the  day  of  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  to  the 
beginning  of  1870,  the  gold  product  of  the  State  was  one 
billion  dollars. 

The  overland  immigration  was  constantly  pouring  into 
the  valleys  and  ravines  of  the  upper  country,  and  here 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  245 

scenes  of  the  wildest  excitement  prevailed,  sometimes 
caused  by  the  discovery  of  rich  "  pockets  "  in  the  river 
beds,  or  nuggets  in  the  gulches,  but  oftener  by  the 
fabulous  reports  of  waggish  or  half -crazy  "prospectors," 
who,  without  the  least  foundation  in  fact,  reported  the 
discovery  of  "  mountains  of  gold,"  or  lakes  lying  in 
basins  of  precious  wealth.  The  location  of  these  discov- 
eries was  invariably  at  a  distance  so  remote  or  place  so  in- 
accessible as  to  wear  out  both  patience  and  purse  of  those 
who  attempted  to  verify  the  statements.  Throughout 
the  gulches  and  ravines  osnaberg  villages  sprang  up  with 
magic  celerity,  and  presented  a  scene  of  stirring  activity 
and  excitement.  Honesty  becUme  a  cardinal  princi- 
ple with  the  miners  whose  provisions,  tools,  clothing  and 
gold-dust  were  secure  in  and  about  tent  doors  whether 
during  day  or  night  tirnc.  It  was  not  until  a  tide  of  ad- 
venturers broke  in  upon  camp  and  cabin  that  theiving 
commenced  ;  there  was  little  time  to  spend  with  courts  or 
juries,  so  that  offenders  were  summarily  tried  before 
popular  opinion,  which,  if  it  said  "  guilty, "  the  culprit 
was  very  quickly  given  an  opportunity  to  execute  a  pas 
seul  in  the  air. 

Prices  of  every  commodity  ran  up  to  fabulous  figures. 
Vegetables  and  fruits  were  luxuries  that  a  millionaire 
could  scarcely  afford.  Apples  ranged  from  one  to  five 
dollars  each ;  eggs  were  firm  at  fifty  dollars  a  dozen. 
Everything  else  was  in  proportion.  Butcher-knives  sold 
readily  at  thirty  dollars  each  ;  laudanum  was  forty  dol- 
lars a  dose,  and  a  pill  or  purge  was  a  luxury  that  only 
$10  could  obtain  ;  doctors'  opinions  were  suddenly  trans- 
formed into  valuable  mining  property,  medical  advice 
being  sold  by  the  foot  —  a  single  prescription  costing  a 
round  $100  ;  in  the  mines  men  were  gathering  fortunes, 
some  at  the  rate  of  $500,  $1,000,  $5,000,  and  in  a  few 


246 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  247 

instances,  $8,000  a  day,  while  one  man  had  the  good 
fortune  to  pick  up  a  single  "chunk"  of  pure  gold, 
weighing  thirteen  pounds,  and  worth  about  $35,000.  In 
the  city  the  few  remaining  men  who  could  perform  ordi- 
narily hard  labor,  received  for  a  day's  work  from  $12  to 
$30  ;  the  carpenters  "struck"  because  they  were  receiv- 
ing only  the  pittance  of  $14  a  day,  and  for  washing  a 
dozen  pieces,  $12  to  $20  was  charged.  The  returned  min- 
ers who  had  met  with  success,  generally  parted  with  their 
"dust"  about  as  fast  as  they  obtained  it,  and  the  favor- 
ite way  of  getting  rid  of  it  was  over  the  gaming  table ; 
disappointed  miners,  if  ever  they  smiled,  smiled  sadder 
than  any  other  unfortunate  persons. 

After  the  news  of  the  discovery  of  the  rich  gold  fields 
had  become  widespread  over  the  world,  there  was  a  great 
rush  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  earth,  and  all  classes 
and  conditions  of  humanity  flocked  to  San  Francisco ; 
then  was  inaugurated  the  most  exciting  era  of  modern 
civilization,  in  its  every  phase  (except  peace  and  morality), 
its  business  excellence,  thrift  and  prosperity  ;  its  harmo- 
nizing and  equalizing  influence  on  different  classes  and 
nationalities  ;  its  riot  and  debauchery ;  its  crime,  vice  and 
blood-shed  ;  to  be  brief,  its  general  extravagance  of  prin- 
ciples and  property,  and  of  life  itself. 

The  Indians,  who  were  quite  numerous  in  California, 
did  not  fail  to  profit  by  the  excitement  and  value  of  pro- 
visions. Very  few  of  them  engaged  in  mining,  but  they 
became  active  in  hunting,  and  especially  in  taking  salmon 
from  the  Sacramento,  which  fgund  a  ready  market  in  San 
Francisco  at  ten  dollars  each. 

"The  mines  continued  steadily  to  yield  their  golden 
wealth.  Twenty-five  dollars  a  day  might  be  the  average 
of  the  miners,  still  thousands  were  making  hundreds  per 
day ;  and  thousands,  after  paying  exorbitant  prices  for 


248 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 


every  thing,  and  being  'in  bad  luck,'  found  themselves, 
after  a  year's  hard  labor  and  deprivation,  without  a  dol- 
lar :  clothes,  health,  hopes,  all  gone  ;  far  from  home, 
dispirited,  disappointed,  in  receipt  of  letters  from  wife 
or  fond  ones  at  home  making  urgent  appeals  for  help,  or 


anxiously  imploring  their  return,  reminding  them  of  their 
promises  when  leaving  home  that  they  would  only  be 
absent  six  months  or  a  year. 

44  The  latter  part  of  1849  and  the  years  1850  and  1851 
found  thousands  of  penniless,  downcast  miners  returning 
by  the  steamers  to  their  Eastern  homes,  or  plunging  into 
gambling,  dissipation  and  vice.  Meantime  the  gold  pro- 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  249 

duct  was  still  on  the  increase — forty  million  dollars  being 
extracted  in  1849,  fifty  million  dollars  in  1850,  and  fifty- 
five  million  dollars  in  1851.  Many  persons,  having  real- 
ized large  fortunes,  either  returned  home  or  entered  into 
business  in  the  growing  towns  of  Calif ornia." 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  MOST  EXCITING  TIMES. 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  being  the  only  port  of  entry  in  prox- 
imity to  the  mines,  reaped  the  full  benefits  of  California's 
mineral  wealth.  Her  increase  in  population  was  so  enor- 
mous that  it  was  impossible  to  build  houses  fast  enough 
to  supply  the  ,demand .  In  consequence  of  this  rents  ad- 
vanced to  figures  that  fully  compared  with  the  price  of 
every  necessary  article.  Four  large  conflagrations  swept 
over  the  young  metropolis  and  burned  half  the  houses ; 
but  these  disasters  did  not  curb  the  spirit  that  was  bent 
on  the  building  up  of  a  large  city.  Miners  who  had  illy 
succeeded  in  wresting  from  the  earth  a  store  of  gold,  re- 
turned to  San  Francisco  and  were  glad  to  engage  in  the 
construction  of  houses,  for  at  this  labor  twenty  to  twen- 
ty-five dollars  a  day  could  be  earned. 

Wild  speculation  in  city  lots,  merchandise  and  lumber 
succeeded  the  first  year  of  excitement  in  the  mines. 
Montgomery  street,  which  is  to-day  the  finest  thorough- 
fare in  San  Francisco,  was,  in  1850,  a  mire  in  which  teams 
floundered  and  sometimes  entirely  disappeared.  Yet  lots 
abutting  upon  it  were  being  sold  at  princely  figures, 


250 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


which    continued    to    advance    as    logs    and    brush  were 
thrown  in  to  make  a  bed  for  the  street. 

Thousands  of  disappointed  miners,  representing  every 
race  and  profession,  accepted  their  fate  and  turned  from 
unprofitable  gold- washing  to  tilling  in  mud-flats.,  building 
houses  and  engaging  in  other  occupations  that  promised 


the  best  returns.  Employment  of  all  kinds  was  wanting, 
and  was  partly  supplied  by  those  whose  experience 
with  salt  bacon  and  beans  in  the  wild  gulches  and  ravines 
had  become  too  bitter  for  longer  endurance. 

"Every    distinction    in  costume,    country,  trade    and 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  251 

profession  was  leveled  ;  the  gouty  judge  and  nimble  tailor 
were  catering  to  the  hungry  crowd  in  the  restaurant ;  the 
blacksmith  sawing  lumber ;  a  dentist  shoeing  a  kicking 
mustang  or  slaughtering  a  bullock  ;  a  butcher  keeping  a 
millinery  store ;  a  barber  cleaning  tripe  and  making 
sausages ;  a  shoemaker  shaving  at  a  dollar  a  head ;  a 
painter  digging  a  gutter  ;  a  horse-doctor  building  a  boat ; 
a  lawyer  sawing  firewood  ;  a  sailor  milking  a  cow ;  a 
book-keeper  blacking  boots  ;  a  jeweler  picking  chickens 
or  digging  clams  ;  a  merchant  in  the  kitchen  as  cook ;  a 
farmer  keeping  an  assortment  store  ;  an  ox-driver  paint- 
ing a  sign,  while  a  sickly-looking  clerk  shoveled  down  a 
sand-hill.  All  were  tradesmen,  all  were  professional 
men.  Trades  or  occupations  would  change  with  the  last 
job  or  highest  pay.  Men  who  could  not  succeed  left  the 
country  in  disgust,  never  to  return  again  ;  while  their 
next  neighbors,  with  a  fortune,  returned  to  take  their 
families  to  the  land  of  gold — '  God's  best  country,'  as 
the  fortunate  ones  would  call  it ;  and  so  it  was  to  many, 
who,  landing  upon  its  shores  penniless,  were  soon  able  to 
pay  off  their  debts  at  home  and  place  themselves  and 
families  in  affluence.  How  different  with  those  who, 
forming  the  larger  class,  either  returned  home  with 
barely  enough  to  pay  their  passage,  or  who,  failing  in 
health,  hopes  and  fortune,  found  unknown  graves, 
or  still  chase  the  fickle  phantom  which  allured  them  to  a 
strange  land. 

"  The  State  of  California  kept  continually  increasing  in 
population  and  wealth.  Cities  and  villages  sprang  up  in 
all  directions.  Sacramento,  a  barren  waste  in  1848,  and 
in  which  the  first  frame  house  was  erected  in  January, 
1849,  had,  in  the  spring  of  1850,  a  population  of  twelve 
thousand.  Other  places  of  importance,  both  in  the 
mining  and  agricultural  districts,  were  springing  up. 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


Great  life  and  bustle  abounded  everywhere;  the  gold 
product  continued  on  the  increase.  Fortunes  were  made 
in  San  Francisco  in  a  day.  Lands  and  rents  were  beyond 
all  precedent ;  fifty  and  one  hundred  lots  were  granted, 
in  San  Francisco,  by  the  Alcaldes,  as  late  as  1850,  on  the 
payment  of  sixteen  dollars  ;  many  of  these  lots  sold  in 


CUSTOM- HOUSE,  ON  THE  PLAZA.  *  RENT  $7,OOO  A  MONTH   IN    1849. 


one  and  two  years  after  fo.r  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars.  Fifty  thousand  dollars  for  a  lot,  which  only  a 
few  days  before  sold  for  two  thousand,  was  a  frequent 
occurrence.  The  merest  shell  of  an  old  shanty  or  old  tent 
rented  for  fabulous  prices.  A  canvas  tent,  fifteen  by 
twenty-five  feet,  which  stood  near  the  Plaza,  rented  for 
forty  thousand  dollars  per  annum.  The  Parker  House, 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


253 


a  common  two-story  frame,  which  was  also  near  the  Plaza, 
on  Kearney  street,  brought  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
dollars  per  annum  ;  a  small,  rough,  one -story  building,  at  the 
Plaza,  was  rented  by  some  brokers  for  seventy-five  thousand 
dollars  ;  and  a  one-story,  twenty-fdot-front  building  brought 
forty  thousand.  Even  the  shanty  which  provided  such  in- 


DENNISON'S  EXCHANGE  AND  THE  PARKER  HOUSE,' SAN  FRANCISCO. 

(Before  the  Fire  of  December  1849.     Parker  House  rented  for  $120,000  a  year  in  1849.) 


sufficient  accommodations  for  the  customs  business  rented  for 
seven  thousand  dollars  per  month. 

"  Amusements  were  luxuries ;  in  the  circus  sixty  dol- 
lars for  a  private  box,  and  three  dollars  in  the  pit.  Board 
in  a  hotel,  or  tent,  about  eight  dollars  a  day,  and  from 
twenty-five  to  forty  dollars  per  week.  Lumber  from 
three  hundred  to  five  hundred  dollars  per  thousand.  To 
build  a  brick  house,  it  was  estimated  that  it  would,  when 


254  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

finished,  and  that  too  in  a  rough  manner,  cost  a  dollar  for 
each  brick  in  the  building. 

"Soon  vast  overstocks  of  many  descriptions  of  goods 
glutted  the  market ;  so  much  so  that,  rather  than  pay  the 
exorbitant  rents  and  storage  necessary,  the  mud-holes  and 
gulches  were  filled  up  with  boxes  of  choice  tobacco,  and 
Clay  street,  for  a  great  distance,  was  paved  with  shovels 
the  handles  making  a  kind  of  corduroy,  and  rather  rough 
surface. 

"Immigrants  and  gold-seekers  were  still  coming.  In 
1850,  the  State  had  a  population  of  117,538;  twenty- 
seven  thousand  people  arrived  in  San  Francisco  by  sea 
and  by  the  Isthmus.  The  year  1852  showed  a  population 
of  264,435.  During  the  year  1853,  thirty-four  thousand 
gold-seekers  had  returned  home  by  sea,  and  fifteen  thou- 
sand by  land.  The  yield  of  gold  in  this  year  was  the 
largest  ever  produced  in  the  State — sixty-five  million  dol- 
lars. The  product  has  kept  steadily  decreasing  ever  since 
at  about  an  average  of  two  million  dollars  per  annum, 
until  the  present  time  (1882,)  when  it  is  about  twenty 
million  dollars." 

It  was  but  natural,  amid  such  extravagance  and  exag- 
geration,  that  viciousness  should  become  general.  There 
were  as  yet  no  practical  laws  and  every  passion  was  free 
to  indulge  its  bent.  Men  were  robbed  in  daylight  in  the 
most  populous  parts  of  San  Francisco  ;  crowds  of  bullies 
were  kept  in  constant  employment  by  unprincipled 
rascals,  who,  having  money  sufficient  at  their  command, 
could  disposses  any  property-holder  and  run  him  out  of 
the  State. 

The  few  women  who  went  to  California  in  1849,  and 
three  or  four  years  thereafter,  were  generally  of  the  most 
disreputable  class,  not  merely  destitute  of  decency,  but  so 
debased  as  to  be  a  caricature  on  humanity  ;  yet,  degraded 


256  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

and  t?lthy  as  they  were,  the  extreme  scarcity  of  women 
made  even  their  company  delightful  to  miners,  who  paid 
enormous  quantities  of  gold-dust  for  such  polluted  so- 
ciety as  these  females  afforded. 

Dissipation  and  rioting  was  a  universal  indulgence,  and 
in  the  absence  of  other  kinds  of  amusements  bull  and 
bear  fights  became  a  very  popular  divertisement.  Admis- 
sion to  these  shows  of  animal  ferocity  ranged  from  ten  to 
twenty-five  dollars,  and  the  fight  was  so  conducted  by  two 
Mexican  managers  that  usually  several  combats  could  be 
had  between  a  bull  and  bear  before  either  was  killed, 
which  made  this  novel  sport  one  of  immense  profit  to 
those  who  owned  the  animals. 

Gambling !  It  is  not  strange  that,  to-day,  San  Fran- 
ciscoans  are  so  fond  of  speculative  sports  and  business. 
Twenty  and  twenty-five  years  ago  they  all  gambled.  The 
finest  and  moat  substantial  houses  in  the  city  were  the 
"gilded  palaces  of  chance."  Faro,  roulette,  monte,  and 
rondo,  were  all  favorite  games.  Gold  was  so  easily  ob- 
tained and  so  abundant,  that  everybody  had  money  to 
stake  on  the  game.  Sometimes  these  stakes  were  enor- 
mous. Twenty  thousand  dollars  were  risked  on  the  turn 
of  a  single  card.  Such  large  bets  were,  of  course,  rare  ; 
but  one  thousand,  three  thousand  and  five  thousand  dol- 
lars were  nightly  lost  and  won  as  single  stakes. 

So  popular  was  the  game,  that  men  who  had  quit  the 
pulpit,  the  deaconship,  the  sabbath-school  teacher's 
place,  to  come  to  California,  as  naturally  drifted  into  the 
gambling  houses  and  took  their  turn  at  play,  as  the  most 
hardened  gamester.  The  gambling  houses  were  the  only 
places  of  resort.  Every  lodging  house  was  full  and  over- 
flowing ;  hotels  were  alike  crowded,  and  as  there  were  no 
homes  in  this  strange  community,  the  restless  people 
must  needs  seek  shelter  in  the  bar-rooms  where  the  games 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  257 

went  on.  These  places  were  comfortable  at  least;  they 
were  well  lighted  at  night,  and  besides,  there  was  that 
other  subtle  attraction  there,  that  exciting  and  intoxicat- 
ing amusement,  that,  once  indulged  in  with  success,  be- 
comes fascinating. 

In  1851,  the  thieving  and  murdering  elements  of  San 
Francisco  were  so  great  that  it  became  necessary,  in  self- 
defense,  for  the  more  peaceably  inclined  citizens  to  effect 
an  organization  that  would  at  least  make  a  show  of  resist- 
ance, and  support  some  color  of  law.  For  this  purpose 
a  large  mass  meeting  was  held,  at  which  the  following 
declaration  was  promulgated  : 

"  WHEREAS,  it  has  become  apparent  to  the  citizens  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, that  there  is  no  security  for  life  and  property,  either  under 
the  regulations  of  society  as  it  at  present  exists,  or  under  the  law 
as  now  administered: 

"  Therefore}  the  citizens,  whose  names  are  hereunto  attached, 
do  unite  themselves  into  an  association  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  peace  and  good  of  society,  and  the  preservation  of  the 
lives  and  property  of  the  citizens  of  San  Francisco,  and  do  bind 
ourselves,  each  unto  the  other,  to  do  and  perform  every  lawful 
act  for  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order,  and  to  sustain  the  laws 
when  faithfully  and  properly  administered;  but  we  are  determined 
that  no  thief,  burglar,  incendiary,  nor  assassin,  shall  escape  pun- 
ishment, either  by  the  quibbles  of  the  law,  the  insecurity  of  pris- 
ons, the  carelessness  or  corruption  of  the  police,  or  a  laxity  of 
those  who  pretend  to  administer  justice.  And  to  secure  the  ob- 
jects of  this  association,  we  do  hereby  agree,"  etc. 

To  this  declaration  of  purpose  was  appended  a  long 
list  of  signatures,  among  which  were  the  names  of  many 
of  the  most  influential,  honorable  and  wealthy  men  in 
the  city.  The  organization  was  not  to  be  of  a  passive 
character.  Action  was  wanted,  and  it  did  act,  wisely  and 
well.  Its  work  was  not  done  in  the  heat  of  excitement. 
Although  its  members  sometimes  hastily  performed  their 
ungracious,  though  self-imposed  duties,  it  was  not  with- 
out legal  formality,  close  investigation  and  patient  hear- 
17 


258  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

ing  that  extreme  penalties  were  inflicted.  But  they  were 
bitterly  opposed  by  the  city  authorities.  Judges  threat- 
ened, and  lawyers  (whose  services  were  not  required  in 
the  counsels  of  the  committee  rooms)  mouthed  and 
talked  of  illegality  as  if  they  were  the  only  interpreters 
of  justice  ;  as  if  the  true  and  good  man,  whoever  he  may 
be,  has  not  in  his  heart  the  principles  of  justice. 

Soon  all  the  law-breakers  were  trembling  at  the  up- 
lifted hand  of  vengeance,  that  threatened  to  smite  them 
ere  they  could  escape.  And  soon  the  city  was  as  peace- 
ful as  a  rural  village. 

During  its  active  reign  the  committee  executed  three 
notorious  criminals  by  hanging.  It  drove  from  the  city 
all  others  of  the  more  daring  and  desperate  villains,  and 
by  its  positive  action  created  a  public  sentiment  that 
forced  the  legal  authorities  to  be  more  vigilant  in  their 
respective  capacities,  and  more  particular  in  attending 
to  the  demands  of  justice.  The  committee  ceased  to  act 
only  when  crime  ceased  in  the  city,  but  its  members  were 
not  formally  disbanded  until  after  the  more  exciting 
times  wherein  they  figured  so  prominently  five  years 
later. 

San  Francisco  enjoyed  comparative  quiet  from  1852 
until  1855,  when  corruption  in  municipal  office  and  brig- 
andage  became  more  flagrant  and  unbearable  than  ever. 
Masked  men  appeared  openly  in  the  streets  and  garroted 
citizens,  apparently  defying  law  or  resistance  ;  the  rough 
element  had  apparently  banded  together  for  the  purpose 
of  preying  upon  the  wealth  held  by  honest  hands ;  on 
some  occasions,  however,  they  were  attacked  by  chance 
crowds  of  incensed  citizens,  and  a  terrible  vengeance  was 
wrought  on  the  thieves.  Politics  was  in  fact  account- 
able for  this  chaotic  condition  of  city  affairs,  but  financial 
disaster,  which  caused  such  a  panic  among  the  citizens, 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  259 

did  more  to  incite  murderers  to  their  work  and  plunge 
society  into  anarchy.  This  disastrous  breaker  wrecked 
many  of  the  heaviest  monied  firms  in  San  Francisco, 
among  whom  were  Page,  Bacon  &  Co.,  bankers ;  Adams 
&  Co.  ;  Dr.  Wright's  savings  bank,  and  James  King  of 
William,  were  prominent  among  those  who  succumbed  to 
the  pressure.  Society  was  sore  diseased.  Villainy  wielded 
the  balance  of  power,  and  honesty  was  at  a  discount. 
"  The  law's-  delay,  the  insolence  of  office,"  became  the 
chafing  cause  of  much,  discomfort.  Honest  voters  on 
election  day  felt  that  it  was  but  ill-spent  time  to  cast  a 
vote.  Ballot-box  stuffing,  not  vox  populi,  placed  men  in 
office.  In  short,  the  town  was  ruled  by  gamblers, 
rowdies  and  State-prison  convicts.  "  Sidney  ducks  "  were 
cackling  in  the  pond. 

"At  this  juncture,  James  King  of  William  took  the 
editorial  chair  and  began  the  publication  of  the  Evening 
Bulletin.  Notwithstanding  he  was  a  tyro  in  the  pro- 
fession, his  power  was  felt  among  the  evil-doers.  He 
applied  the  lash  without  respect  to  rank  or  wealth. 
Dealing  with  facts  alone,  he  feared  no  libel  suits.  He 
unveiled  crime  wherever  it  existed.  When  it  was  sup- 
posed that  Cora,  the  murderer  of  Marshal  Richardson, 
was  loosely  held  by  the  sheriff,  he  came  out  in  the  boldest 
terms.  Said  he  :  *  If  Mr.  Sheriff  Scannell  does  not  re- 
move Billy  Mulligan  from  his  present  post  as  keeper  of 
the  county  jail,  and  Mulligan  lets  Cora  escape,  hang  Billy 
Mulligan  ;  and  if  necessary  to  get  rid  of  the  sheriff,  hang 
him — hang  the  sheriff  ! '  An  attack  of  similar  tone  upon 
one  Casey — a  member  of  the  Board  of  Supervisors — led 
to  the  attempted  assassination  of  Mr.  King,  on  the  14th 
day  of  May,  1856.  Casey  was  an  ex-convict  of  Sing 
Sing  prison,  and  in  the  editorial  by  Mr.  King  this  fact 
was  set  forth.  Casey  revenged  himself  by  shooting  Mr. 


260  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

King  down  in  the  street  a  few  hours  after  the  article  was 
published.  The  sympathy  of  the  best  citizens  was  with 
the  wounded  man.  Fearing  an  attack  on  the  jail  where 
Casey  was  confined,  the  military  were  ordered  out.  The 
enraged  citizens  gathered  about  the  prison.  Excitement 
ran  high.  Mayor  Van  Ness  attempted  to  address  them 
from  the  front  of  the  jail.  He  advised  them  to  disperse 
and  let  the  law  take  its  course  ;  but  the  lion  was  roused. 
Cries  came  up  from  the  restless  multitude,  '  Where  is  the 
law?  '  '  There  is  too  much  law  and  too  little  justice  in 
California.'  '  Down  with  such  justice  I '  At  a  late  hour 
of  the  night  the  crowd  dispersed. 

"But  this  temporary  lull  was  only  a  time  of  quiet 
preparation  for  a  general  uprising  of  the  outraged  subjects 
of  a  law  whose  letter  was  good,  but  the  administration  of 
which  was  in  the  hands  of  men  for  whose  punishment  the 
law  was  made.  The  vigilance  committee  that  had  been 
organized  as  early  as  1851  met  and  effected  a  reorganiza- 
tion. Within  thirty  hours  after  King  was  shot,  more 
than  two  thousand  names  were  enrolled  on  their  books. 
Hundreds  stood  without  the  doors  of  the  committee's 
rooms,  anxiously  awaiting  their  turn  to  subscribe  to  a 
pledge,  the  principles  of  which,  if  carried  out,  would 
purge  the  city  of  the  ballot-box  stuff ers,  jury  packers, 
swindlers,  thieves  and  villains  generally.  The  meetings 
were  held  with  closed  doors.  This  secrecy  terrified  the 
•guilty,  and  many  fled  the  city.  Others  attempted  to  en- 
roll themselves  among  the  number,  but  there  wras  an 
*  all-seeing  eye  '  peering  from  the  heading  of  the  official 
paper,  that  signified  that  whether  within  the  ranks  of  the 
organization  or  without,  every  one  was  subject  to  its 
penetrating  gaze.  This  freed  the  ranks  of  all  hypocrites. 

"The  leading  papers,  although  conservative  in  tone, 
with  one  exception,  were  considered  favorable  to  the 


SAN  FHANCISCO. 

organization.  King  still  lingered,  though  it  was  evi- 
dent his  wound,  would  prove  fatal.  The  streets  were 
thronged  with  armed  men.  With  quiet  tread  they 
marched  to  the  jail  where  Casey  was  confined.  When 


CONVEYING  CASEY  THROUGH  THE  STREETS. 


262  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

a  brass  cannon  had  been  mounted  in  range  of  the  jail 
door,  they  demanded  that  he  and  Cora  be  delivered  to 
their  custody.  With  little  delay  the  demand  was  acceded 
to.  The  trembling  prisoners  were  conveyed  in  irons  to 
the  headquarters  of  the  'Vigilantes.'  The  following 
day,  about  noontime,  James  King  of  William  breathed 
his  last.  The  bells  of  the  town  tolled  forth  the  melan- 
choly tidings.  Montgomery  street,  and  in  fact  the  whole 
city,  soon  wore  the  sable  badge  of  mourning.  Business 
of  all  kinds  was  suspended.  Crape  trimmings  were  draped 
upon  many  of  the  residences,  and  streamed  from  the 
door-knobs  of  the  business  houses.  A  paralyzing  gloom 
for  a  time  reigned  supreme.  One  of  the  best  citizens  had 
gone  to  his  death  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  San  Fran- 
cisco was  a  plague-stricken  city.  No  epidemic  disease 
was  raging  ;  no  famine  was  tormenting  the  inhabitants  ; 
but  there  was  an  even  more  dreaded  calamity  afflicting 
them — crime  in  its  most  dangerous  form  held  the  mastery. 
The  streets  in  all  directions  were  darkened  with  men  hur- 
riedly pressing  on  to  the  headquarters  of  the  'Vigi- 
lantes.' It  was  the  prevailing  opinion  that  the  criminals 
confined  there  would  be  speedily  executed  after  the  death 
of  Mr.  King.  But  this  was  erroneous.  Casey  was  hav- 
ing his  trial.  There  was  not  to  be  any  punishment  ad- 
ministered to  the  innocent ;  and  if  he  was  found  guilt- 
less, he  should  go  free. 

"  On  the  succeeding  day,  a  vast  concourse  of  people 
slowly  wended  their  way  to  Lone  Mountain,  where  they 
deposited  in  its  last  resting-place  the  body  of  the  mourned 
dead.  But  previous  to  this,  Casey's  trial  had  been  con- 
cluded, and  a  sentence  of  murder  entered  against  him: 

"While  the  greater  part  of  the  populace  were  witness- 
ing the  last  sad  rites  at  the  grave  of  their  dead  friend, 
quiet  preparations  were  going  on  at  the  committee-rooms 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  263 

for  the  enacting  of  a  scene  that  would  strike  terror  to  the 
heart  of  every  criminal.  A  scaffold  had  been  shot  out 
from  the  second-story  window  of  the  committee-rooms  ; 
Casey  and  Cora  were  placed  upon  it,  and  the  same  bells 
that  tolled  the  funeral  march,  sounded  the  dirge  of  these 
doomed  criminals.  Ere  the  fleetest  of  foot  had  returned 
from  the  grave,  the  bodies  of  Casey  and  Cora  were  dang- 
ling from  the  cornice. 

"The  Vigilance  Committee  had  begun  their  purging 
task  in  earnest.  The}'  soon  had  arrested  several  of  the 
most  notorious  villains,  and,  when  a  fortnight  had  passed, 
the  city  presented  a  more  peaceful  aspect.  The  coroner's 
work  had  been  much  reduced.  The  newspapers  were 
minus  the  regular  bloody  record.  No  more  was  it  con- 
sidered of  great  risk  to  walk  abroad  at  night  time,  and 
security  was  felt  by  all  law-abiding  citizens.  But  the 
vicious  and  criminal  classes,  if  any  remained,  were  rest- 
less with  anxiety ;  what  had  been  their  place  of  refuge 
was  now  the  most  dangerous  ground  for  them  to  tread. 

"There  were  some  among  the  inhabitants  who  at  this 
stage  of  its  existence  deemed  it  proper  that  the  Com- 
mittee should  disband.  Two  of  the  daily  papers  came 
out  in  opposition  to  longer  vigilance  rule  ;  one  prominent 
clergyman  strenuously  opposed  them.  The  politicians 
undertook  to  make  capital  out  of  its  existence,  and  a 
strong  faction  urged  that  it  disband.  Meetings  were  ap- 
pointed of  anti-vigilante  character,  but  the  sympathy  of 
the  masses  was  yet  with  the  Committee. 

"On  the  third  of  June,  1856,  Governor  Johnson  is- 
sued a  proclamation  declaring  San  Francisco  in  a  state  of 
insurrection.  William  T.  Sherman  was  commissioned 
Major-General,  and  in  his  proclamation  the  Governor 
commanded  all  volunteer  companies,  and  all  persons  sub- 
ject to  military  duty,  to  report  at  once  to  him,  and  re- 


264  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

main  in  readiness   for  further   orders.     The   Vigilance 
Committee  was  commanded  to  disband. 

"This,  perhaps,  was  the  plain  duty  of  the  Governor, 
but  the  good  results  following  the  reign  of  the  Committee 
made  the  existence  of  that  organization  the  desire  of  the 
masses.  A  few  men  enrolled  themselves,  but  the  procla- 
mation was  by  no  means  received  favorably.  Seeing  that 
there  would  probably  be  some  attempt  made  by  the  Gov- 
ernor and  his  adherents  to  force  it  to  disband,  the  Com- 
mittee opened  its  books  for  new  enlistments,  fortified  its 
headquarters,  and  made  general  preparations  for  defense. 
In  this  dilemma  the  Governor  applied  to  the  President  at 
Washington  for  advice  and  aid.  The  President  declined 
to  interfere.  Some  misunderstanding  having  obtained 
between  Major  Sherman  and  the  Governor,  the  former 
tendered  his  resignation.  This  was  accepted,  and  Mr. 
Volney  E.  Howard  was  appointed  as  his  successor.  A 
shipment  of  arms  and  ammunition,  in  charge  of  Reuben 
Maloney,  to  Major  Howard,  had  been  made  from  Sacra- 
mento by  the  Governor,  and  the  Vigilance  Committee, 
learning  of  this,  sent  out  a  squad  of  men,  who  boarded 
the  vessel  and  transferred  to  the  Committee's  arsenal  all 
the  ammunition  and  arms.  Another  schooner  was  mak- 
ing a  landing  about  this  time,  having  on  board,  as  was 
supposed,  a  cargo  of  bricks.  The  Vigilantes  looked  upon 
this  craft  with  suspicious  eyes,  and,  after  going  on  board 
and  turning  up  a  few  layers  of  bricks,  discovered  twelve 
cases  of  rifles  and  six  of  ammunition.  This  was  another 
instalment  from  the  Governor  to  Major  Howard.  These 
also  soon  found  storage  in  the  Committee's  arsenal.  This 
was  on  June  20,  1856. 

"On  the  day  following,  a  meeting  of  the  Committee 
was  held,  at  which  it  desired  Mr.  Maloney  to  be  present, 
to  explain  the  circumstances  connected  with  the  shipment 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  265 

of  arms  that  he  had  charge  of.  Mr.  A.  Hopkins,  of  the 
Vigilance  police,  was  detailed  to  go  and  bring  him.  He, 
with  two  assistants,  proceeded  to  the  office  of  Dr.  H.  P. 
Ashe,  United  States  Naval  Agent,  where  they  found  Ma- 
loney in  company  with  Dr.  Ashe  and  Associate  Justice 
David  S.  Terry,  of  the  Supreme  Court.  These  two  gen- 
tlemen informed  Hopkins  that  no  arrest  could  be  made 
in  their  presence.  Hopkins,  therefore,  returned  to  the 
Committee's  rooms  for  reinforcements. 

"During  his  absence,  Terry  and  Ashe  armed  them- 
selves and  descended  to  the  street  with  Maloney,  whom 
they  designed  to  escort  to  the  armory  on  Dupont  Street 
and  place  him  in  charge  of  the  'Law  and  Order'  troops. 
Hopkins'  party,  however,  soon  overtook  them.  As  they 
drew  near  to  each  other,  Terry  and  Ashe  handled  their 
arms  in  so  threatening  a  manner  as  to  cause  Hopkins  to 
suppose  that  resistance  would  be  made.  Hopkins  sprang 
upon  Terry,  while  another  officer  seized  Ashe.  The  lat- 
ter surrendered  at  once,  but  Terry  struggled  desperately 
to  free  himself,  and,  before  the  struggle  was  ended,  Hop- 
kins received  a  severe  cut  in  the  neck  from  a  knife  in  the 
hands  of  Terry.  During  the  excitement  that  this  conflict 
naturally  occasioned,  the  three  escaped.  The  great  bell 
over  the  rooms  of  the  Vigilant  Committee  sounded  a  call 
to  arms.  Men  of  all  trades  and  professions  quit  their  re- 
spective offices  or  workshops,  and,  in  an  hour's  time,  the 
streets  were  filled  with  an  excited  multitude  rushing  with 
great  speed  to  the  Committee's  rooms.  Vigilantes  had 
soon  surrounded  the  Dupont  Street  armory.  The  sol- 
diery that  occupied  this,  seeing  that  resistance  would  be 
useless,  sued  for  peace.  The  conditions  of  the  treaty 
were  brief  and  to  the  point.  The  Vigilantes  demanded 
the  persons  of  Judge  Terry  and  Reuben  Maloney.  These 
gentlemen  were  brought  out,  and  then  the  whole  armory, 


266  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

with  its  quota  of  muskets,  was  given  over  to  the  be- 
siegers. In  hot  haste  they  marched  through  the  city  to 
every  armory  or  place  where  the  '  Law  and  Order'  forces 
were  stationed,  and  by  night  the  Vigilantes  were  masters 
of  the  city.  Not  a  shot  had  been  fired. 

"The  prison  cells  at  the  Committee's  rooms  were  filled 
with  men  who  had  been  captured  at  the  '  Law  and  Order' 
armories.  Hopkins,  the  officer  wounded  by  Judge  Terry, 
was  in  a  critical  condition,  and  Terry  was  languishing  in 
his  cell,  perhaps  secretly  hoping  that  the  gash  he  had  in- 
flicted would  soon  heal,  for  upon  the  recovery  of  his  vic- 
tim depended  his  escape  from  the  gallows.  With  the 
Vigilantes,  rank  and  position  had  no  influence.  Terry, 
however,  had  many  friends  who  interested  themselves  in 
his  behalf.  In  Texas,  his  former  home,  the  Legislature 
submitted  a  memorial  to  Congress,  praying  the  Federal 
Government  to  interfere  in  his  behalf.  It  was  hotly  de- 
bated and  referred  to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  but  was 
never  reported  upon.  When  Hopkins  had  recovered, 
and  after  a  protracted  trial,  in  which  over  one  hundred 
and  fifty  witnesses  had  been  examined,  Judge  Terry  was 
liberated,  having  occupied  his  cell  as  prisoner  for  almost 
seven  weeks.  He  was  advised  by  the  Committee  to  re- 
sign his  judgeship. 

"The  12th  of  August,  1856,  found  the  cells  of  the 
Vigilance  Committee  empty.  The  city  enjoyed  unusual 
immunity  from  crime  and  disorder.  The  members  of  the 
Committee  felt  there  was  no  further  work,  for  the  pres- 
ent, required  of  them  ;  therefore  they  publicly  signified 
their  intention  of  immediately  disbanding.  Six  days 
later — Monday,  August  18th — business  in  the  city  was 
generally  suspended,  and  the  streets  were  thronged  with 
the  inhabitants  who  had  gathered  to  witness  the  grand 
final  parade  of  the  '  San  Francisco  Committee  of  Vig- 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  267 

ilance.'  There  was  a  flag  presentation;  speeches  were 
made ;  and  the  Executive  Committee  published  an  ad- 
dress to  the  General  Committee,  setting  forth  the  mo- 
tives of  organization,  reciting  that  tho  purposes  of  the 
Committee"  had  been  accomplished,  and  recommending 
its  members  to  return  to  their  respective  avocations,  and 
let  the  civil  authorities  resume  control  of  the  city. 

"They,  however,  reserved  the  discretion  of  rea*ssem- 
bling  should  emergencies  arise  when  they  felt  the  safety 
of  life  and  society  demanded  such  action.  They  kept 
their  guards  on  duty  until  about  the  first  of  September, 
when  the  flag  over  their  rooms  was  lowered,  and  thus 
ended  the  unwholesome  conflict.  The  work  they  had 
performed  spoke  for  itself.  Four  criminals  had  been 
executed  ;  about  twenty-five  had  been  banished ;  and 
those  whom  fright  drove  from  the  city  were  variously 
estimated  at  from  five  to  eight  hundred.  On  the  3d  of 
November  the  Committee  surrendered  the  State  arms 
that  it  had  captured  to  the  Governor ;  the  proclamation 
of  insurrection  was  withdrawn,  and  things  resumed  their 
regular  routine. 

"The  example  set  by  the  metropolis,  of  the  citizens 
thus  taking  the  administration  of  the  laws  into  their  own 
hands,  when  the  outlaws  and  vagabonds  became  too  over- 
bearing, has  since  been  followed  many  times  in  almost 
all  the  prominent  mining  towns  of  the  coast.  These 
mining  camps,  in  their  prosperous  days,  became  the 
'hunting-ground'  of  thieves,  gamblers,  murderers  and 
adventurers  of  all  kinds,  who  sometimes  committed  such 
high-handed  outrages  that  the  law-abiding  citizens  were 
fain  to  rise  in  their  wrath  and  smite  them  hip  and  thigh. 
This  sudden  vengeance  usually  takes  the  form  of  '  Lynch 
law,'  and  the  morals  of  the  community  are  purged  and 
cleansed  by  the  expulsion  or  hanging  of  the  leaders  of 


268  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

the  outlaws.  Of  late  days,  these  Committees  style  them- 
selves '601,'  and  written  'notices  to  quit,'  signed  with 
this  mystic  number,  generally  offer  sufficient  inducement 
for  suspected  characters  to  change  their  places  of  abode, 
without  further  action  being  necessary.  No  mining  camp 
of  any  notoriety  has  escaped  the  infliction  of  the  '  roughs  ;' 
but  when  the  Committee  of  '  601 '  is  organized,  and  its  of- 
ficial announcements  are  made,  the  towns  are  soon  cleared 
of  objectionable  characters,  who  know  the  result  of  non- 
compliance  with  the  order  too  well  to  brave  it." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SOCIAL  AND  COMMERCIAL  PECULIARITIES  OF   THE    CHINESE. 

IN  the  three  preceding  chapters  I  have  briefly  described 
those  early  days  of  California,  which  will  ever  be  among 
the  most  interesting  events  of  American  history.  San 
Francisco  still  retains  some  of  those  marks  impressed  by 
the  gold  discovery,  most  important  among  which  is  the 
Chinese,  with  their  singular  customs  and  alienship — they 
seldom  become  naturalized. 

For  hundreds  of  years  China  remained  behind  her 
wonderful  wall,  refusing  international  communication, 
and  living  in  an  air  of  isolation  which  was  never  agi- 
tated save  by  the  atmospheric  disturbances  produced  by 
English  cannons  and  Japanese  commerce.  To  the 
Chinese,  America  was  as  little  known  as  the  North  Pole 
is  to  us  now,  until  that  magic  word,  gold!  which  bears  its 
own  interpreter  to  every  land,  rang  thro  ugh  the  Phillipian 
coasts  and  cast  itself  like  a  gem  at  the  feet  of  every 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  269 

Chinaman.  The  veil  of  exclusiveness  was  at  once  up- 
lifted, and  thousands  of  these  flowery  Orientals  in  junks 
and  quaint  schooners  set  out  across  the  Pacific  main,  for 
the  golden  kingdom.  China,  over-run  with  its  millions 
of  superfluous  subjects,  looked  favorably  upon  this  emi- 
gration, while  those  who  came  found  America  pregnant 
with  opportunities  of  which  they  eagerly  availed  them- 
selves. In  their  native  country  the  poorer  class  of 
Chinese  were  compelled  to  labor  like  beasts  of  burden 
and  subsist  on  small  allowances  of  rice  ;  upon  reaching 
California  they  found  wages  astonishingly  high  and  food 
more  palatable.  These  advantages  were  told  by  letters 
to  friends  in  China,  and  then  began  an  immigration  to  the 
Pacific  coast  Avhich  has  continued  and  will  continue  unless 
some  law  is  enacted  opposing  their  admission. 

San  Francisco  has  a  Chinese  population  which  is 
variously  estimated  at  from  forty  to  seventy-five  thou- 
sand ;  the  actual  number  is  perhaps  fifty  thousand.  Un- 
like any  other  nationality  the  flowery  kingdom's  subjects 
never — or  very  rarely — renounce  allegiance  to  their  native 
sovereign,  and  very  few  acquire  any  real  estate  in 
America.  Their  prejudices  can  only  be  removed  by  ex- 
hausting their  vitality  ;  they  came  to  California  because 
fortune  was  there  more  promising,  but  even  should  the 
climate  be  more  delightful  than  they  ever  before  expe- 
rienced ;  though  wealth  might  be  easily  amassed,  and  every 
surrounding  be  particularly  pleasant,  yet  a  Chinaman  can 
never  enjoy  these,  or  any  other  blessing,  outside  of  his 
own  country.  To  him  China  is  a  celestial  country,  which 
was  grafted  onto  heaven  by  the  early  philosophers,  Con- 
fucius and  Mencius.  Buried  elsewhere  he  believes  his 
soul  would  never  find  paradise,  so  that  every  Chinaman, 
however  poor,  when  dying  abroad  has  his  bones  carefully 
boxed  and  transported  back  to  China. 


270  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Chinese  history  anti- 
dates  Herodotus  and  Moses  thousands  of  years,  and  that 
printing  was  known  to  these  people  before  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  era,  yet  they  are  behind  nearly  every 
other  nation  in  civilization,  and  their  superstition  is  in- 
comprehensibly great.  Those  now  in  San  Francisco 
have  transplanted  all  their  native  customs  and  persist  in 
living  as  their  forefathers  did.  In  China  they  live  so 
compactly  together  that  every  breath  serves  its  use  to  a 
dozen  persons,  by  re-inhalation  and  re-exhalation  ;  and, 
though  abundant  room  might  be  readily  obtained,  those 
in  San  Francisco  hive  in  exactly  the  same  manner.  Their 
habits  are  in  some  respects  like  hibernating  rattle-snakes, 
while  in  others  they  are  identical  with  wallowing  hogs. 
I  shall  attempt  a  description  of  Chinese  life  in  their  quar- 
ters, but  at  most  only  a  vague  idea  of  their  squalor  and 
inspissated,  fumy,  reeking  condition  can  be  given  ;  no 
pen,  however  facile,  can  hope  to  convey  a  distinct  picture 
of  Chinese  quarters,  and  those  who  would  see  for  them- 
selves must  be  first  prepared  to  encounter  odors  so  rank 
and  pungent  as  to  render  the  Augean  stables  sweetly 
scented  by  comparison. 

Chinatown  is  a  particular,  well-defined  part  of  San 
Francisco,  having  its  metes  and  bounds  within  a  limit 
not  occupied  by  any  other  class.  These  quarters  may  be 
broadly  defined  as  lying  within  the  limits  of  Stockton 
and  Kearney  and  California  and  Jackson  streets,  and 
embracing  in  all  some  eight  squares.  Although  in 
places  overstepping  these  boundaries  and  trenching  on 
fully-recognized  aristocratic  Caucasian  neighborhoods,  it 
is  mainly  confined  to  the  parallelogram  described  by  these 
streets,  a1  id  is  perc'ieJ  on  the  eastern  slope  of  Russian 
Hill  in  irregular  and  intricate  masses  of  oddly-arranged, 
gayly-bedizened  and  variously-metamorphosed  American- 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  271 

built  houses.  Within  this  compass  live  nearly  all  of 
San  Francisco '  s  Chinese .  Every  alley-way  thro  ugh  these 
blocks  swarms  with  Celestials,  the  doors  of  whose  abodes 
open  from  narrow  pathways  or  sub-alleys  into  filthy  and 
circumscribed  avenues. 

These  by-courts  are  used  for  aU  manner  of  purposes, 
by  tradesmen  of  every  class,  shoemakers,  opium  dealers, 


ALLEY  IN   CHINATOWN. 

marketers,  amulet  peddlers,  pawn-brokers,  green  grocers, 
and  a  hodge-podge  of  nameless  occupations.  A  fellow 
goes  ambling  through  these  lanes  on  his  rocking,  cork- 
bottom  shoes,  carrying  a  cross-beam  suspending  two  bas- 
kets with  lids  concealing  their  contents.  He  cries  out 
in  lusty  voice,  "ki-?o,  ki-fo,"  as  though  he  had  been 
taking  lessons  from  a  charcoal  man.  If  he  is  stopped  by 
an  American  whose  curiosity  leads  to  inquiry,  the  peddler 


272  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

quickly  drops  his  old  Swiss-style  le  hotte  and  uncov- 
ers a  basket  which  is  found  to  contain  chickens.  They  are 
undoubtedly  English  fowls,  but,  possibly  through  Chinese 
association,  they  appear  uncanny  and  smell,  for  all  the 
world,  like  an  unwashed  Celestial.  It  makes  no  apparent 
difference  whether  you  buy  or  not,  the  peddler  gathers 
his  pack  again,  and  bestowing  a  heathen  grin  of  incom- 
prehensibility, he  catches  on  to  his  old  song  once  more, 
"ki-to,  ki-Zo." 

Here  sits  an  ancient  disciple  of  Kon-fu-tse  (Confucius) 
who  has  arranged  before  him,  spread  out  on  a  board, 
which  rests  on  a  barrel,  some  very  strange  appearing  con- 
fections ;  principal  among  his  store  is  perhaps  a  dozen  or 
more  carefully  wrapped  vegetables — a  green  nutmeg,  two 
slices  of  cocoanut,  and  some  saponaceous  leaves,  sassafras 
or  slippery-elm.  These  are  arranged  in  a  small  packet 
and  sold  for  the  modest  sum  of  five  cents  each.  It  is  not 
because  these  little  packages  are  singular  in  themselves, 
that  our  attention  is  directed  specially  to  them,  but  be- 
cause they  subserve  a  religious  and  superstitious  purpose. 
It  is  claimed  that  these  parcels  of  sacred  fruits  are  blessed 
by  priests  and  bring  good  luck  to  all  who  eat  them.  They 
are  made  fresh  every  day  and  must  be  sold  within  the 
same  time,  else  they  possess  no  efficacy  and  are  thrown 
away. 

On  every  side  are  seen  signs  in  chromatic  coloring  pro- 
claiming a  variety  of  occupations.  These  signs  hang 
vertically,  as  in  the  Chinese  written  language  the  lines 
run  downward  and  are  read  from  top  to  bottom.  Like 
the  French,  who  frequently  employ  some  expressive 
phrase  to  designate  their  business,  such  as  "Au  Diable 
Rouge/'  "  A  la  Pensee,"  "  An  Bon  Marche,"  etc.,  the 
Chinese  follow  the  same  personal  fancy.  A  translation 
of  these  signs  will  discover  something  like  the  following : 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  273 

"  Perpetual  Success,"  "  Celestial  Influence  ;"  these  apply 
to  general  merchants  ;  but  here  is  a  physician  whose  sign 
announces  his  great  skill  in  mixing  drugs,  feeling  pulses 
and  writing  prescriptions.  A  Chinese  doctor  determines 
every  ill  by  feeling  the  pulse  ;  he  never  regards  the  tongue 
or  pains  of  a  patient,  all  his  skill  being  directed  toward 
the  pulse.  An  apothecary,  under  a  shop  sign  which 
reads :  « '  Hall  of  the  Approved  Medicines  of  every 
Province  and  Land,"  conveys  the  further  assurance  that 
customers  can  procure  "  decoctions  prepared  with  care 
from  fragrant  drugs."  Restaurants,  where  merchants  of 
the  better  class  dine,  have  such  devices  as  ^Almond- 
Flower  Chamber,"  "  Garden  of  the  Golden  Valley," 
etc.  ^Gambling  places  display  alluring  invitations  in 
phrases  like  the  following:  "Get  Eich.  Please  come 
in,"  "Riches  ever  Flowing,"  "Luck  and  Happiness." 
A  cigar  manufacturer  solicits  patronage  under  the  attract- 
ive combination,  "Harmony  and  Profit."  Pork,  sau- 
sages, fish,  vegetables  and  various  peculiar  viands  are 
recommended  by  devices  of  "  Brotherly  Union,"  "Virtue 
and  Harmony."  Opium  dens  hang  out  their  red  signs 
with  the  declaration  that  "opium  pipes  and  lamps  are 
always  ready."  The  undertaker's  legend,  swinging  be- 
side a  large  glass  window  through  which  his  wares  are 
conspicuous,  is  "Everlasting  Life."  Pawnbrokers'  signs 
are  a  disk  and  species  of  shield  combined,  which  are  as 
well  known  in  Sau  Francisco  as  that  of  the  three  balls  ; 
they  add  phrases  something  like  these,  "Mutual  Bene- 
fit," "Honest  Profit,"  "  Small  Interest,"  etc.  Nor  are 
the  religious  temples  behind  secular  establishments  in  the 
brilliancy  and  seductiveness  of  their  sign  boards  ;  one  on 
Waverly  Place  displays  two :  over  the  lintels  of  the 
doors  are  characters  indicating,  "  Serious  Secrets,"  and 
above  this  is  a  second  sign  reading,  "Queen  of  Heaven." 
18 


274 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


Within  the  shops,  especially  those  patronized  by  the 
common  class  of  Chinese,  such  an  odd  array  of  curious 
goods  may  be  seen  as  nowhere  else :  bamboo-tied  pack- 
ages ;  large  and  small  jars  with  odd-appearing  contents  ; 
mysterious  articles  of  food,  dried  fowls,  bundles  of  sugar 


CHINESE  GROCERY  STORE. 

cane,  Chinese  nuts,  piles  of  skinned  eels,  baskets  of  dried 
shrimps,  crabs,  flitches  of  bacon  and  pork.  The  ceilings 
are  hung  with  a  melange  of  smoked  meats  and  dried  veg- 
etables, while  behind  the  counters  of  these  establishments 
may  be  seen  a  self-satisfied  Chinaman  briskly  smoking 
a  brass  pipe,  which  requires  fresh  filling  after  every  three 
whiffs. 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  275 

Many  of  the  houses  have  covered  balconies  on  the  sec- 
ond stories,  and  from  the  front  of  both  roof  and  lower 
railing  a  number  of  colored  lanterns  and  paper  globes  are 
suspended.  Flowers,  in  pots,  are  set  in  the  windows  and 
on  the  balcony  rails,  while  dishes  of  the  Chinese  lily 
linger  in  favorite  bright  quarters  for  a  long  time  after  the 
New  Year  festival,  which  occurs  about  the  fourteenth 
day  of  February.  Ked  being  the  Chinese  festive  color, 
and  numerous  holidays  and  feasts  taking  place  each  year, 
scarlet  cotton  streamers  and  gaily-colored  papers,  in- 
scribed with  public  notices  or  philosophical  sentences, 
form  a  prominent  feature  in  the  street  architecture. 

Turning  into  a  narrow  alley,  we  come  upon  a  fortune 
teller,  who,  for  the  simple  sum  of  twenty-five  cents,  will, 
by  the  aid  of  little  slips  of  wood  and  small  rolls  of  red 
paper  marked  with  cabalistic  symbols — in  a  word,  the 
"  Eight  Diagrams," — throw  light  on  the  mysterious  fu- 
ture in  connection  with  such  matters  as  gold  digging, 
gambling,  sickness,  travelling,  domestic  matters,  love 
and  friendship.  "  The  Eight  Diagrams,"  which  form 
the  principal  means  of  divination  with  all  Chinese  for- 
tune tellers,  are  merely  trinities  of  straight  lines,  upon 
which  has  been  founded  a  system  of  ethics  deduced  by 
giving  names  to  each  diagram  and  then  associating  the 
meanings  of  these  names  according  to  the  changes  which 
may  be  rung  upon  sixty-four  combinations. 

Street  life  in  the  Chinese  quarters  of  San  Francisco  is 
always  interesting,  but  the  most  entertaining  part  of  this 
singular  existence  is  found  inside,  under  the  cover  of 
darkness,  foul  odors,  clouds  of  opium  smoke,  fumes  of 
cooking  herbs,  in  short,  among  the  burrows  where  Chinese 
license  is  least  liable  to  inspection.  Into  these  recesses  I 
will  now  take  the  reader  and  briefly  describe  some  of  the 
most  dangerous  places  and  secrets  of  Chinatown. 


276  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CHINESE   PROSTITUTION   AND    OPIUM   SMOKING. 

ACCOMPANIED  by  detective  Avon  and  an  interpreter,  we 
start  out  upon  our  tour  just  about  dusk,  for  it  will  re- 
quire several  hours  to  see  the  most  interesting  exhibitions 
of  Chinese  life,  which  begin  to  occur  directly  after  sun- 
set, and  though  our  stay  at  each  place  be  short,  yet  we 
cannot  expect  to  complete  our  trip  before  midnight. 

Passing  first  up  Washington  street  we  turn  into  a  con 
tracted  thoroughfare  and  after  proceeding  less  than  half 
a  square  our  attention  is  directed  to  several  women  who 
stand  about  the  entrance  to  their  abodes  with  torches  in 
their  hands,  which  they  pass  about  the  lintels  of  doors  and 
windows.  We  discover,  by  inquiry,  that  this  is  a  cere- 
mony performed  every  evening  to  keep  away  evil  spirits 
and  influences.  These  women  can  speak  a  few  words  of 
English,  which  they  employ  to  entice  us  into  their  rooms. 
Being  bent  upon  investigation,  we  enter  and  observe  the 
surroundings,  paying  four  "bittee-'  (fifty  cents)  for  the 
privilege  of  witnessing  the  physical  configuration  of  these 
poor,  degraded  creatures.  Without  betraying  the  least 
modesty  any  Chinese  prostitute  will  divest  herself  before 
a  crowd,  rather-esteeming  the  act  one  of  satisfaction  in 
obtaining  audience  to  her  charms — or  disenchantment — of 
person.  In  order  to  set  at  rest  a »question  which  has  been 
fiercely  debated  by  students  of  nature,  our  investigation 
justifies  the  assertion  that  there  are  no  physical  differences 
between  the  Chinese  and  American  women,  their  con- 
formation being  .identical.  In  these  houses  there  is 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  277 

scarcely  any  furniture,  generally  only  a  few  rickety 
chairs,  small  boxes  and  uninviting  bedsteads.  The 
women  eat  constantly  when  not  employed  entertaining 
their  visitors,  for  their  food  is  so  unsubstantial  that  it 
requires  a  stuffed  stomach  to  stay  hunger.  Their  dress 
is  also  inexpensive,  though  some  special  favorites  manage 
to  clothe  themselves  in  silken  fabrics  and  appear  with  a 
pretension  to  neatness. 

There  are  about  two  thousand  Chinese  women  in  San 
Francisco,  but  most  astonishing  to  relate,  there  are  not  a 
half-dozen  who  possess  any  virtue.  In  China  prostitu- 
tion is  a  legally  recognized  custom,  one  which  is  invested 
with  legitimate  privileges,  not  in  conflict  with  the  best 
society.  Women  in  China  do  not  lose  social  caste  because 
they  indulge  the  basest  passions,  yet  inconstancy  among 
those  who  are  married  is  punished  by  death.  This  anom- 
alous, if  not  paradoxical,  custom  of  course  obtains  in 
San  Francisco,  though  legal  marriage  between  the  Chi- 
nese there  is  scarcely  ever  known.  Instead  of  marriage 
those  who  can  afford  the  luxury  maintain  one  or  more  con 
cubines.  Even  in  this  there  is  a  marked  distinction  between 
the  single  and  those  living  with  recognized  paramours — 
or  quasi  husbands.  The  single  women  dress  their  heads 
and  bodies  almost  identical  with  the  men,  but  those  who 
are  kept  by  rich  Chinamen  wear  gay  clothes  and  always 
keep  their  hair  done  up  in  a  most  phantastical  manner. 
Essential  oils  and  wax  are  used  profusely,  which,  together 
with  parti-colored  combs  and  pins,  bind  the  hair  so 
tightly  into  place  as  to  prevent  its  disturbance  ;  but  in 
addition  to  this  they  sleep  on  wooden  pillows,  which  rest 
under  their  necks  and  do  not  permit  the  hair  to  come  in 
contact  with  anything. 

The  most  demoralizing  effects  of  Chinese  prostitution 
are  seen  in  the  slavery  which  enforces  it.     These  women 


278  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

practice  the  evil  because  there  is  no  escape  from  it ;  they 
are  bonded  slaves,  purchased  by  men  and  women  who 
derive  a  revenue  from  their  shame.  The  custom  in 
China,  as  has  just  been  mentioned,  makes  them  willing 
subjects  for  base  purposes.  They  are  purchased  in  China 
by  agents  under  the  following  contract : 

"For  the  consideration  of  $600  (or  any  sum  agreed  upon) paid 
into  my  hands  this  day,  I,  Ah  Ho,  promise  to  prostitute  my  body 
for  the  term  of  four  (or  any  other  number)  years.  If,  in  that  time, 
I  am  sick  one  day,  two  weeks  shall  be  added  to  my  time;  and,  if 
more  than  one  day,  my  term  of  prostitution  shall  continue  an 
additional  month.  But  if  I  run  away,  or  escape  from  the  custody 
of  my  keeper,  then  I  AM  TO  BE  HELD  AS  A  SLAVE  FOR  LIFE. 

(Signed)  "An  Ho." 

"  From  the  reading  of  the  foregoing  contract,  Ah  Ho 
has  evidently  received  $600  in  advance  for  four  years' 
service,  which,  from  a  Chinese  standpoint,  is  good  wages, 
considering  that  the  prostitution  of  her  body  is  a  profes- 
sion bringing  no  disgrace,  and  perfectly  legitimate.  But 
unfortunately  the  money  that  Ah  Ho  declared  was  '  paid 
into  my  hands  this  day/  was,  immediately  after  she  had 
signed  the  contract,  paid  out  again  to  the  person  who  had 
found  a  purchaser  for  her  services,  and  Ah  Ho,  being 
ignorant  and  intimidated  by  threats  of  violence,  is  held 
in  slavery  by  the  contract  she  had  voluntarily  signed. 

* '  Perhaps  as  the  expiration  of  _  the  term  of  slavery 
draws  nigh,  her  master  will  secure  the  services  of  an 
accomplice,  who  will,  by  offers  of  marriage,  and  various 
inducements,  prevail  upon  Ah  Ho  to  flee  from  her  place 
of  imprisonment.  Then  she  is  again  delivered  over  to 
her  master,  and  by  the  contract  is  '  held  as  a  slave  for 
life.' 

"  Thus  are  the  Chinese  women  of  San  Francisco  kept  in 
slavery  for  the  most  infamous  purposes,  brutally  treated 
while  in  health,  and  if  overtaken  by  sickness — which  from 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  279 

the  nature  of  the  life  they  lead  is  sure  to  speedily  come— 
are  turned  out  upon  the  street,  reviled  by  their  country- 
men, and  find  no  relief  except  in  a  most  agonizing  death. 
Sometimes  a  woman  is  reclaimed  from  these  vile  dens, 
and  placed  in  a  mission,  or  married  to  a  Christianized 
Chinaman  ;  but  her  former  master  is  full  of  resource,  in- 
genious and  irrepressible,  and  sooner  or  later  she  is  likely 
to  be  kidnapped  and  conveyed  to  a  place  of  concealment, 
beyond  the  reach  of  her  rescuers  or  the  officers  of  the 
law,  to  continue  in  the  disgraceful  service." 

From  the  houses  of  prostitution  we  pass  along  the 
alley-way  until  a  large  red  sign  arrests  our  attention,  and 
following  the  detective  we  enter  at  a  door  which  leads  to 
a  large  court.  The  houses  rise  several  stories  high  all 
about  us,  and  the  surrounding  porches  are  filled  with  bab- 
bling, laughing  Chinamen.  Seated  about  in  the  court  are 
many  others  whose  efforts  are  directed  toward  preparing 
supper  ;  they  have  a  fire  lighted  which  blazes  up  in  neither 
stove  nor  fire-place,  but  in  a  small  square  box  of  shteet-iron 
that  throws  out  more  smoke  than  heat,  which,  in  combina- 
tion, fill  the  entire  court  with  suffocating  vapor.  Leav- 
ing this  court  we  push  our  way,  by  stooping  and  crowd- 
ing, through  a  sub-alley  not  more  than  two  feet  wide, 
until  we  strike  an  area  slightly  expansive.  It  is  as  dark 
as  Erebus  in  this  mysterious  underground  passage,  and 
but  for  the  flickering  rays  from  a  candle  which  the  detec- 
tive carries,  we  could  not  determine  our  route.  Along 
each  side  of  this  by-way  are  shelves  arranged  one  above 
the  other  to  a  height  of  ten  feet  or  more.  Each  of  these 
bunks — for  such  they  are — is  about  four  feet  long,  three 
feet  wide,  and  two  feet  high.  There  is  some  straw,  or 
an  old  blanket  on  the  floor  of  every  bunk,  on  which  two 
Chinamen  may  be  found  at  any  time  after  nightfall, 
smoking  opium.  In  these  places  no  daylight  ever  pene- 


280  MYSTERIES   AXD   MISERIES. 

trated,  and  being  situated  under  ground  they  are  laden 
with  the  mould  of  dampness  and  foul  air ;  but  in  addition 
to  a  naturally  foetid  atmosphere  there  are  the  fumes  of 
opium  and  body  exhalations.  In  these  circumscribed 
quarters  the  Chinese  burrow  like  rats,  breathe  each  other's 
emanations  and  create  a  very  cauldron  of  offensive  rot- 
tenness which  simmers  and  evaporates  uninterruptedly 
through  all  seasons.  It  is  thus  that  in  a  space  not  more 
than  fifty  feet  square  hundreds  of  Chinamen  may  be 
found.  And  yet,  in  defiance  of  all  statistics  and  Boards 
of  Health  promulgations  relating  to  increase  of  mor- 
tality in  thickly  populated  quarters,  the  Chinese  persist 
in  showing  an  extremely  low  death  rate,  and  a  phenome- 
nally small  amount  of  sickness. 

Beaching  the  end  of  the  passage-way  just  entered,  a 
smart  rap  upon  a  well  patched  door  is  followed  by  our 
admission  into  one  of  the  most  noted  dens  in  America. 
In  this  almost  inaccessible  haunt  there  are  twenty  thieves 
engaged  jn  a  game  of  chance.  They  scowl  on  us  with 
ferocious  looks  and  we  instinctively  throw  our  right  hands 
back  to  the  trusty  weapons  in  our  hip  pockets.  Seeing 
our  preparation  the  dusky  decoits  assume  composure  and 
finally  proffer  each  of  us  a  pipe,  with  horn  cup  of  opium  ; 
but  this  is  no  place  to  fall  under  the  influence  of  so 
dangerous  a  narcotic.  We  watch  their  game,  however, 
and  finally  grow  interested  in  witnessing  the  dexterity  and 
fortune  of  some  of  the  players.  But  we  cannot  grow  ac- 
customed to  the  dancing  shadows,  which  flit  like  murder- 
ous specters  about  those  grimy  walls.  There !  as  a 
Chinaman  lifts  his  card  on  high  for  a  coup  d'etat,  it 
gathers  the  rays  from  those  sickly  tapers  and  casts  a  re- 
flection which  appears  like  some  fiend  with  dagger  up- 
lifted for  a  fatal  thrust.  There  is  now  a  smell  not  unlike 
that  which  rises  from  the  cerements  winding  a  corpse ; 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  281 

the  flickering  shades  become  more  phantastic  and  every 
breath  is  drawn  as  though  filtered  through  the  heart  of  a 
devil ;  narcotic  fumes  begin  to  penetrate  our  unaccustomed 
brains,  and  images  of  aphantasmagoria,with  death  steal- 
ing from  behind  a  screen  to  cut  us  down,  fill  us  with 
htrror.  There  is  witchery  in  the  picture  that  is 
thrown  upon  our  brain,  and  like  one  who  abandons 
hope,  we  shift  our  oars  and  drift  unconsciously  to 
doom.  Our  escort,  however,  feels  no  such  harrow- 
ing influence,  and  after  conducting  us  again  to  the 
open  air  we  realize  that  those  visions  were  but  the  effects 
of  foul  air,  strongly  saturated  with  intoxicating  opium. 
Having  ascended  from  the  most  villainous  abodes  in 
Chinatown — or  America — we  follow  on  a  block  further, 
and  by  using  a  signal  which  the  detective  understands,  we 
are  admitted  to  an  opium  den  that  derives  its  patronage 
from  a  more  aristocratic  class.  In  fact,  the  den  is  .owned 
by  an  American,  who  conducts  it  through  a  Chinese 
manager.  There  are  two  rooms,  both  of  whjph-  dis- 
play pretentious  furnishing,  with  tables  and  lounging 
chairs,  on  which  repose  a  representation  of  Americans, 
while  others  stand  in  the  background  awaiting  their  turn. 
This  smoking  and  tea  drinking  room  is  patronized  exclu- 
sively by  white  men  and  women,  the  latter,  of  course,  be- 
longing to  a  class  which,  though  lacking  some  popular 
elements,  are  excessively  numerous  in  San  Francisco. 
Such  a  sight  was  shocking,  but  there  were  some  com- 
pensating appearances  which  brought  interest  out  of 
moral  disturbance. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  sensations  produced 
by  the  first  draught  at  an  opium  pipe  are  peculiarly 
pleasant,  but  never  was  a  more  egregious  mistake  made. 
While  the  amateur  is  not  nauseated  as  when  first  attempt- 
ing tobacco,  the  feeling  and  savor  is  exceedingly  offen- 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  283 

sive ;  there  is  an  acrid  taste  to  the  smoke,  and  as  it 
strikes  the  uvula  and  penetrates  the  nasal  passage,  which 
it  is  sure  to  do  at  first,  there  is  a  burning  and  astringent 
sensation  which  provokes  extreme  disgust.  No  one  can 
acquire  the  habit  except  by  some  persistence,  for  in 
nearly  all  respects  it  is  like  its  companion,  tobacco.  An- 
other grave  error  exists  in  the  belief  that  opium  always 
induces  a  feeling  of  supreme  contentment  and  pleasure  ; 
that  it  creates  beautiful  visions  and  laves  a  troubled  brain 
like  potations  of  nepenthe.  With  respect  to  its  narcotic 
and  nerve-quieting  properties,  opium  is  like  whiskey, 
though  a  larger  number  of  those  who  use  it  experience  a 
soothing  sensation,  yet  not  a  few  become  excited  under 
its  influence  and  can  obtain  no  mellifluous  effects  until 
they  have  absorbed  large  quantities. 

The  usual  manner  of  smoking  opium  may  be  succinctly 
described  as  follows :  The  opium  so  used  is  a  'special 
preparation  somewhat  resembling  molasses  in  color, 
perhaps  darker,  but  has  the  consistency  of  paste. 
It  is  carried  in  a  small,  horn  cup,  from  which  it  is 
extracted  upon  the  point  of  a  wire.  The  pipe-bowl  is 
made  of  stone  or  earthen-ware,  and  is  solid,  with  the 
exception  of  a  very  small  puncture  which  runs  down 
through  the  center  and  connects  with  an  ivory' or  wooden 
stem,  which  conveys  the  smoke  to  the  mouth.  In  pre- 
paring for  an  indulgence,  the  opium  is  gathered  from  a 
cup  upon  the  point  of  a  steel  wire,  when  it  is  rolled  into 
a  small  ball  that  adheres  to  the  wire.  Then  it  is  held 
over  a  small  lamp,  which  sits  inside  of  a  glass  that  resem- 
bles an  inverted  tumbler  with  the  bottom  broken  out. 
In  this  flame  the  opium  boils  and  swells  until,  by  evap- 
oration, it  is  reduced  to  a  hard  ball,  less  in  size  than  a 
small  pea.  It  is  now  ready  to  be  smoked.  The  pipe- 
bowl  is  kept  heated,  and  the  opium-pea,  which  still  ad- 


284 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES, 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  285 

heres  to  the  wire,  is  carried  to  the  pipe,  and  both  pipe 
and  opium  being  put  into  the  flame,  the  smoker  begins. 
Notwithstanding  all  this  trouble  of  preparation, -there  are 
not  more  than  three  or  four  draughts  of  smoke  in  a 
charge. 

There  is  another  way  of  smoking  opium,  somewhat 
resembling  that  of  tobacco,  but  the  drug  thus  used  is 
differently  prepared,  and  its  effects  are  less  stimulating  ; 
however,  the  latter  means  are  employed  very  frequently 
by  novices  who  cannot  manipulate  a  wire  and  hold  the 
flowing  opium — for  it  requires  much  skill  to  do  this. 

The  prices  of  opium  pipes  are  estimated  by  the  length 
of  time  they  have  been  smoked.  By  long  use  the  stems 
become  saturated  with  opium  and  are  therefore  more  val- 
uable, because  they  produce  more  serviceable  results. 
Three  or  four  heavy  draughts  of  the  vaporized  drug, 
drawn  by  deep  respiration  into  every  passage  of  the  lungs 
and  exhausted  through  the  nose,  are  followed,  generally, 
by  a  soporific  sensation  ;  but  to  those  who  have  long  prac- 
ticed the  habit  it  requires  several  pipes  to  transport  them 
into  fields  Elysian. 

De  Quincy,  in  his  admirable  letters  to  young  men,  de- 
scribes the  effects  of  opium  smoking  in  language  at  once 
so  terrible  and  truthful  that  it  seems  invidious  for  any 
other  writer  to  essay  a  like  attempt ;  those  who  desire 
further  information  respecting  this  insinuating  and  dan- 
gerous vice  are  therefore  referred  to  the  works  of  that 
famous  author.  During  Gen.  Grant's  visit  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, on  his  return  from  abroad,  he  made  a  tour  of  the 
opium  dens,  accompanied  by  detective  Avon  and  several 
ladies,  who  bravely  faced  the  fumes  and  perils  of  under- 
ground Chinatown  to  witness  scenes  such  as  have  just 
been  indifferently  described. 


286 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES, 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  287 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CHINESE  THEATRES  AND  RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP. 

ALTHOUGH  I  have  barely  mentioned  some  of  the  hor- 
rible phases  of  Chinese  life,  consideration  fora  more  cul- 
tivated taste,  which  I  am  sure  my  readers  possess, 
prompts  me  to  pass  over  the  underground  Hurlothrumbo 
of  Chinatown  and  describe  some  of  the  more  pleasing 
characteristics  ;  some  that  will  excite  laughter  rather  than 
condemnation. 

The  Chinese  are  excessively  fond  of  amusements ; 
though  very  frugal,  they  are  liberal  in  their  support  of 
the  drama.  To  those  who  have  never  had  any  experience 
among  these  strange  people  there  is  scarcely  anything 
more  ludicrously  absurd  than  a  Chinese  theatre,  and 
however  grave  or  tragic  the  piece  performed ,  an  Amer- 
ican can  look  on  only  through  a  veil  of  mirth-provoked 
tears. 

There  are  three  Chinese  theatres  in  San  Francisco,  the 
principal  one  of  which  is  located  on  Washington  street, 
opened  in  1879.  They  are  all  in  a  flourishing  condition 
and  have  crowded  houses  from  five  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon until  two  o'clock  the  following  morning.  These 
theatres  are  constructed  something  on  the  style  of  En- 
glish play-houses,  especially  in  the  auditorium  arrange- 
ment, though  instead  of  adjustable  seats  they  have  long 
benches  divided,  by  small  partitions,  into  compartments 
for  a  single  sitter.  Inasmuch  as  Chinese  women  are 
never  permitted  to  sit  in  company  with  the  men,  bal- 
conies are  built  on  each  side  of  the  auditorium  for  their 
exclusive  accommodation. 


288  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

The  stage  is  like  those  of  our  modern  theatres,  with 
one  important  exception,  viz.  :  an  absence  of  curtain  and 
scenery.  To  us  it  seems  next  to  impossible  to  run  a 
theatre  without  a  drop  curtain,  but  the  Chinese  manage 
very  well  to  dispense  with  that  important  accessory. 
On  every  side  of  the  stage  there  is  a  lavish  display  of 
Chinese  characters — coined  phrases  of  fabled  deities  and 
wise  saws  of  canonized  sages.  The  audience  enjoy  an 
unrestricted  license ;  wear  their  hats,  smoke  brass  pipes 
and  cigarettes,  and  buy  pop-corn  or  confections  from 
Chinese  "peanut  boys."  But  the  funniest  thing  on  the 
stage  is  a  Chinese  orchestra.  Words  quite  fail  me 
when  I  undertake  to  describe  this  noisy  adjunct. 
The  musicians,  so  to  speak,  occupy  a  position  on  the 
stage  just  behind  the  players,  and  their  music  is  as  noisy 
and  inharmonious  as  a  provincial  charivari.  They  use 
instruments  bearing  some  resemblance  to  fiddles,  banjos, 
guitars,  cymbals  and  miniature  kettle-drums.  The  string 
instruments  are  long  and  narrow,  with  only  three  cords 
that  cry  out  in  a  miserable,  squeaky  falsetto.  They  are 
played  incessantly  and  apparently  without  the  slightest 
regard  to  time  or  harmony.  In  other  words,  if  the  al- 
leged music  could  be  translated  into  English  we 
might  discover  one  fellow  playing  "Old  Dan 
Tucker"  to  his  neighbor's  "Rye-Straw."  In  short, 
the  whole  orchestra  is  a  medley  of  shrill  discord 
and  harsh,  rasping  noises.  No  women  are  ever  al- 
lowed upon  the  stage,  but  young  fellows  assume  female 
characters  and  skip  about  in  wanton  abandon.  They 
also  try  to  sing,  but  this  fact  I  only  discovered  by  being 
told  so  ;  it  would  be  wholly  impossible  for  an  American 
to  decide  without  the  aid  of  a  translator.  The  voice  is 
raised  to  a  transcendental  high  "  do,"  and  there  it 
quivers,  screeches,  drawls  and  exasperates  until  a  native 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  289 

suspicions  that  the  warbler  is  trying  to  imitate  the 
screams  of  a  convict  having  his  toe  nails  filed  off. 

The  star  actor  comes  plunging  onto  the  stage  in  a  per- 
fect cyclone  of  noise,  himself  yelling  like  a  trapped  devil 
to  make  "  confusion  worse  confounded."  His  make-up 
presents  all  the  horrible  that  exists  in  Chinese  imagina- 
tion ;  long,  flowing  robes  in  red  and  black  ;  a  vizier  on 
his  head  with  streaming  pheasant  feathers  ;  grizzly  beard 
setting  off  a  face  painted  with  cunning  terribleness,  and 
in  his  hand  he  carries  a  staff  terminating  with  spear  and 
crescent,  that  strikes  terror  into  a  white  visitor  who  im- 
agines it  to  be  the  magic  staff  of  some  Plutonian  monster. 
Behind  him  is  a  retinue  of  actors  bearing  lances  which 
they  wave  and  thrust  spasmodically,  but  we  can't  tell 
whether  they  are  trying  to  "  spit "  the  star  or  the  devils 
that  impel  him.  Presently  one  of  the  supes,  or  stars, 
which  I  cannot  say,  is  caught  in  a  cul  de  sac  and  re- 
morselessly stabbed  with  a  leather  sword ;  the  victim 
falls  dead  and  remains  a  corpse  for  a  minute,  when  he  de- 
liberately arises  and  walks  off  without  assistance — just  to 
think  of  a  dead  man  acting  as  his  own  pall-bearer ! 
When  this  act  takes  place  the  Chinese  can  depend  upon 
an  encore  from  the  American  side  of  the  house.  But 
during  all  this  time,  regardless  of  songs  or  tragic  utter- 
ances, the  orchestra  continues  its  interminable  din  as 
though  the  music  was  paid  for  by  the  hundred  feet. 

The  property-room  of  a  Chinese  theatre  is  almost  as 
full  of  curious  interest  as  the  audience  side.  It  is  lighted 
by  large  paper  lanterns,  and  contains  hundreds  of  things 
concerning  the  use  of  which  the  most  accomplished 
American  actor  would  know  nothing.  It  is  here  that  the 
star  mixes  his  own  diabolizing  cosmetiques  and  changes 
his  naturally  homely  face  into  a  character  more  frightful 
than  that  of  Caliban/  As  all  Chinamen  are  incessant 
19 


290 


MYSTERIES   AISTD   MISERIES. 


eaters  they  keep  a  repast  constantly  ready  in  the  prop- 
erty-room, and  when  not  acting  the  attaches  are  filling 
up  with  quaint  dishes.  A  dressed  pig  is  always  a  con- 


spicuous  object  in  the  dressing  chamber,  for  with  China- 
men pigs  are  not  only  good  eating  but  they  possess  a 


charm  which  brings  good  luck. 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  291 

A  Chinese  play  is  like  a  continued  story,  it  is  given  in 
chapters  ;  many  of  their  tragedies  —  they  never  play 
comedies — run  through  the  entire  year,  and  few  are 
concluded  in  less  than  one  month.  They  never  carry 
mirth  upon  the  stage,  dancing  among  them  being  al- 
most unknown,  but  confine  themselves  to  illustrating 
the  wisdom  of  their  philosophers  or  the  tyranny  of 
their  "rulers.  Outside  the  theatre  a  Chinaman  is  full 
of  levity,  but  inside  a  play-house  he  is  the  essence  of 
gravity ;  it  matters  not  how  delighted  he  may  be  with 
any  part  of  a  performance,  he  never  demonstrates  his 
feelings  by  hand-clapping  or  stamping  of  feet ;  a  broad 
grin  is  the  extent  of  his  approval. 

Next  to  theatres  a  Chinaman's  interest — perhaps  amuse- 
ment— lies  in  his  religion.  I  am  aware  that  there  are 
many  Mohammedans,  Buddhists,  Taouists  and  Confucians 
among  the  Chinese,  nevertheless,  I  incline  to  the  opinion 
that  they  have  no  well-defined  religious  belief,  i.  e.9 
teachings  and  faith  bounded  by  creeds  and  canons.  Re- 
ligion, in  the  abstract,  they  practice  with  more  ceremony 
and  devotion  than  any  other  people,  but  their  faith  is 
more  a  searching  after  revelation  than  hoping  to  reach  a 
heaven  through  the  practice  of  ethical  precepts.  They 
have  a  multitude  of  gods,  like  the  ancient  Greeks,  and 
sacrifice  to  these  to  win  favor,  and  propitiate  their  faults 
by  undergoing  voluntary  punishments  ;  but  in  all  respects 
their  gods  never  rise  above  the  estimation  of  a  parent  or 
censor. 

Confucius  and  Mencius  were  actual,  historical  person- 
alities, each  of  whom  established  a  code  of  morals  that 
have  never  been  improved  upon .  Neither  of  them  be- 
lieved in  a  personal  God,  and  all  their  teachings  were  ad- 
monitions how  to  live,  without  regard  to  death.  Their 
philosophy  is  almost  universally  taught  throughout  the 


292 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 


Chinese  Empire,  and  so  sacred  is  their  memory  held  that 
they  have  been  deified  to  an  equality  with  all  the  other 
Chinese  gods.  The  doctrine  taught  by  Confucius,  briefly 
summarized,  is  as  follows  :  He  said  :  "  I  teach  you  noth- 
ing but  what  you  might  learn  yourselves,  viz. :  the  ob- 
servance of  the  three  fundamental  laws  of  relation  be- 


CONFUCIUS.  (Traditional  likenesses.)        MENCIUS. 

tween  sovereign  and  subject,  father  and  child,  husband 
and  wife  ;  and  the  five  capital  virtues — universal  charity, 
impartial  justice,  conformity  to  ceremonies  and  estab- 
lished usages,  rectitude  of  heart  and  mind,  and  pure  sin- 
cerity." He  inculcated  the  necessity  of  acts  of  homage 
for  the  dead,  and  advised  that  respectful  ceremonies  be 
observed  at  the  graves  of  deceased  persons  or  at  their 
homes  ;  hence  the  practice  now  prevailing  among  Chi- 
nese of  keeping  a  room  in  their  residences  for  the  wor- 
ship of  the  dead — the  "  hall  of  ancestors" — and  the  cere- 
monies that  are  therein  performed  at  certain  dates.  Con- 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  293 

f ucius'  most  god-like  quality  was,  that  in  his  life  he  prac- 
ticed what  he  preached,  This  example  had  its  influence 
on  the  people,  and  caused  many  who  would  not  otherwise 
have  accepted  his  teachings,  to  enlist  as  his  disciples 

During  his  life  he  held  several  political  offices  at  dif- 
ferent times,  in  the  administration  of  which  he  introduced 
many  reforms.  He  died  479  B.  C.,  at  the  age  of  three- 
score years  and  ten.  His  family  has  continued,  through 
sixty-eight  or  seventy  generations,  to  the  present  day  in 
the  same  province  and  locality  where  he  was  born. 
They  are  honored  by  various  privileges,  and  enjoy  a  sort 
of  aristocratic  distinction — being  the  only  examples  of 
fiereditary  aristocracy  in  the  Empire. 

Lao-tsze  was  the  founder  of  the  Taouist  (sect  of 
reason)  religion.  His  existence  is  rather  mythical.  His 
biographers  name  the  time  of  his  birth  as  604  B.  C.,  and 
of  his  death  one  hundred  and  nineteen  years  thereafter. 
The  latter  part  of  his  life  was  therefore  contemporaneous 
with  Confucius.  It  is  said  that  Confucius  visited  the  old 
philosopher  with  a  view  to  gain  more  wisdom  from  him, 
but  the  meeting  of  the  two  sages  was  not  satisfactory. 
Lao-tsze  rebuked  Confucius  for  his  pride . 

The  Taouist  religion,  as  promulgated  by  its  founder, 
was  excellent,  and  more  nearly  suited  to  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man  than  the  Confucian,  but  its  succeeding  ad- 
vocates and  interpreters  have  introduced  so  many  new 
isms  into  the  doctrine,  among  which  are  alchemy  and 
divination,  that  it  is  now  accepted  only  by  the  imbecile, 
aged,  and  the  illiterate. 

The  disciples  of  Lao-tsze  believe — as  his  biographers 
state — that  he  was  the  incarnation  of  a  shooting  stary  and 
that  previous  to  his  birth  he  lay  in  his  mother's  womb  for 
eighty  years.  It  is  also  a  common  belief  among  them 
that  he  did  not  die,  but  like  Elijah,  was  translated  to 


294  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

heaven — not,  however,  in  a  chariot  of  fire,  but  upon  the 
back  of  a  black  buffalo. 

We  are  told  that  Buddhism— from  the  title  "The 
Buddha,"  meaning  "the  wise,"  "the  enlightened," 
which  was  given  to  its  founder — has  existed  nearly  two 
thousand  five  hundred  years,  and  is  the  prevailing  religion 
of  the  world.  It  originated  in  Hindostan,  and  a  prince, 
by  name  Siddhartha,  is  the  accredited  founder  of  this  be- 
lief. This  royal  child  was  very  precocious,  having  dis- 
played wonderful  intellectual  powers  in  early  childhood. 
It  was  the  desire  of  the  king — his  father — that  the  prince 
should  be  reared  amidst  the  splendors  of  a  rich  court ; 
and  therefore  Siddhartha  was  surrounded  by  every  luxury. 
Had  he  been  disposed,  as  most  princes  are,  he  would  have 
felt,  no  doubt,  that  his  was  to  be  a  life  of  pleasure — a 
blissful  existence  ;  but  his  mind  was  too  active  and  grasp- 
ing to  be  content  with  such  emptiness,  and  those  things 
that  had  been  placed  about  him  by  loving  hands,  to 
heighten  his  enjoyment,  became  repulsive.  He  was  given 
to  meditation,  and  in  his  thoughtful  moods  the  gaiety 
around  him  was  a  source  of  annoyance  ;  so  he  fled  the 
court,  and  shut  himself  up  in  a  monastery,  in  the  solitude 
of  which  he  endeavored  to  solve  the  problem  of  life. 
After  great  turbulence  of  mind  and  continued  thought- 
fulness,  by  which  many  conclusions  were  formed,  ac- 
cepted as  true  for  a  time  and  finally  abandoned  for  more 
satisfactory  deductions,  the  principles  of  the  Buddhist  re- 
ligion were  evolved. 

It  has  been  said  by  learned  writers  that  the  original 
moral  code  of  the  Buddha,  "for  pureness,  excellence, 
and  wisdom,  is  only  second  to  that  of  the  Divine  Law- 
giver himself."  It  taught  charity,  purity,  patience, 
courage,  contemplation,  knowledge,  resignation  under 
misfortune,  and  humility. 


296  MYSTERIES  AND  MISERIES. 

It  is  a  doctrine  of  transmigration  of  souls.  As  soon 
as  the  life  (which  is  the  soul)  goes  out  of  one  body  it  is 
born  again  into  another  existence.  If,  while  the  soul  in- 
habited the  first  body,  the  actions  and  thoughts  done  in 
that  body  were  in  accordance  with  the  teachings  of  the 
Buddha,  then  the  new  birth  would  be  higher  and  holier. 
Thus  the  soul  would  continue  throughout  interminable 
ages,  passing  from  one  high  existence  to  another  still 
more  exalted,  till  a  perfect  bliss  might  perhaps  finally  be 
reached  in  one  of  the  many  Buddhist  heavens.  For  the 
bad  spirits  or  souls  a  retrograde  transmigration  is  marked 
out,  until  they  at  last  reach  one  of  the  one  hundred  and 
thirty-six  hells  prepared  for  them  in  the  centre  of  the 
earth.  But  according  to  the  Buddhist  belief,  there  is  no 
God.  They  perhaps  unconsciously  look  up  to  a  higher 
power  than  human,  but  the  doctrine  originated  with  man 
and  therefore  it  is  thought  not  to  comprehend  anything 
that  man  cannot  attain  to  by  his  natural  intellectual 
gifts. 

These  various  religious  sects,  instead  of  constructing 
churches  and  having  their  doctrines  expounded  by  priests, 
as  do  other  sects  of  the  civilized  world,  carryall  their  de- 
votions to  the  Joss  House — which  is  a  temple  dedicated 
to  their  gods.  These  sanctuaries  are  usually  located  on 
the  second  or  third  floor  of  a  dingy  looking  building. 
Upon  entering  one  of  these  the  uninitiated  visitor  is  struck 
more  by  the  smell  of  burning  incense  than  the  sight  that 
greets  his  eyes.  There  is  a  great  difference  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  Joss  Houses,  especially  as  regards  lighting 
and  fumigating.  Some  of  them  are  lighted  by  large 
windows,  and  have  no  incense  accessories,  whilst  others 
are  very  dark,  the  only  light  shed  in  them  being  derived 
from  minute  wax  tapers  that  sit  in  the  center  of  a  button 
and  float  in  a  glass  filled  with  peanut  oil ;  there  is  also  a 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  297 

pungent  odor  emitted  from  smouldering  pieces  of  wood 
and  herbs,  which,  though  the  Chinese  call  it  incense,  can- 
not be  so  distinguished  by  an  American  save  as  an  ex- 
pression of  offence.  The  gods  sit  enthroned  on  an  arched 
dais  in  the  rear  of  the  room,  or  in  small  alcoves.  These 
gods  are  of  variable  aspect,  some  with  faces  of  hideous 
visage  and  others  bearing  philosophical  countenances. 
They  are  all  made  of  wood  or  plaster,  and  painted  red, 
both  their  dress  and  features.  There  is  seldom  a  less  num- 
ber than  three  in  each  Joss  House  and  most  generally 
five,  three  being  placed  in  the  center  and  one  on  each 
side.  The  drapery,  carving  and  gilt  that  ornament  the 
alcoves  are  costly  and  elegant,  and  often  exhibit  much 
taste  and  skill  in  design.  Hanging  immediately  in  front 
of  the  gods  is  one  or  more  glass  or  paper  lanterns,  that 
reflect  a  weird  light  on  the  images,  while  at  their  feet  are 
censers  in  which  a  resinous  substance  is  kept  burning. 
On  an  artistically  carved  table  fronting  the  sacred  dais  is 
always  found  an  array  of  vases,  bamboo  splits,  divining 
sticks,  artificial  flowers,  pieces  of  sandal  wood,  and  brass 
images  of  impossible  animals,  fish  and  fowls. 

A  large  bell,  mounted  upon  a  stout  frame,  and  an  im- 
mense drum,  form  the  furniture  of  another  part  of  the 
room.  These  are  used  to  arouse  the  sleeping  gods,  as 
well  as  to  render  more  impressive  certain  ceremonial  ob- 
servances. Immediately  in  front  of  the  images  are 
placed  tables,  upon  which  the  food  offerings  are  strewn. 
The  gods  are  seldom  permitted  to  go  hungry,  and  their 
thirst  is  forever  allayed  by  the  bounteous  supply  of  tea 
that  is  kept  constantly  before  them  within  easy  reach. 

The  lining  of  the  canopy  over  the  gods  is  crimson,  and 
about  the  walls  of  the  building,  both  inside  and  out,  upon 
the  pilasters  of  the  alcoves,  and  upon  the  curtains,  are 
characters  in  crimson,  red  and  gilt,  having  various  sig- 


298  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

nificances.  Just  over  the  proscenium  arch — as  it  were — 
are  the  characters  8 king  Ti  Ling  Toi,  which  means 
"the  spiritual  gallery  of  the  all-powerful  gods."  Beneath 
this,  on  a  richly  embroidered  curtain,  are  Shing  Shan 
Mo  Keung — "the  gods  whose  holy  age  is  perpetual." 
Those  on  the  outer  walls  are  generally  the  prayers  of  the 
worshipers,  with  their  names  attached,  and  not  infre- 
quently the  amount  they  contribute  in  offerings. 

The  principal  images  in  these  temples  represent  "the 
god  of  the  Sombre  Heavens,"  "  the  god  of  war,"  "the 
god  of  medicine,"  and  "the  god  of  wealth,"  all  of 
which  are  worshiped  ;  and  a  large  number  of  very  small 
evil  deities — representing  many  of  the  commoner  sins — 
which  are  propitiated.  The  lirst  of  these — "the  god  of 
the  Sombre  Heavens  "  —is  Yun  Ten  Tin,  who  is  sup- 
posed to  have  the  entire  control  of  the  water  of  the  earth. 
He  is  worshiped  because  of  his  ability  to  prevent  drougth 
and  extinguish  fire — two  great  evils  that  are  prevalent  in 
China. 

•  Kovan  Tai,  "the  god  of  war,"  is  a  favorite  deity 
with  the  Chinese  of  San  Francisco,  because  of  the  re- 
markable power  he  possesses  of  settling  disputes,  quelling 
riots,  etc., — -  a  simple  appeal  to  him  being  sufficient  to 
intimidate  the  most  malicious  enemy.  His  financial 
ability  is  regarded  as  superior  also. 

Wah  Tah,  "the  god  of  medicine,"  is  another  favor- 
ite, being  appealed  to  while  in  health,  to  keep  off  disease, 
and  while  sick,  for  relief.  By  the  aid  of  the  mysterious 
incantations  of  a  priest,  this  divine  healer  is  supposed  to 
be  able  to  cure  all  manner  of  disease.  But  Tsoi  Pah 
Shing  Kwun,  "the  god  of  wealth,"  the  dispenser  of 
riches  y  has  about  him  the  more  earnest  and  hopeful 
worshipers  of  all.  To  him  the  merchants,  capitalists, 
money  changers,  &c.,  bend  the  knee;  and  to  him  does 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  299 

almost  every  Chinaman  appeal,  whether  rich  or  poor, 
hoping  thereby  to  be  prospered  in  whatever  business  he 
is  engaged  "ji.  There  are  separate  deities  for  female 
worshipers^  -that  is,  those  worshiped  by  them  exclusively. 
With  all  these  accessories  so  convenient  for  a  lengthy 
ritual  service,  the  worship  of  the  Chinese  is  very  simple 
and  commonplace.  There  is  a  marked  Jack  of  reverence 
in  their  manner  of  approach  to  "the  gods."  They  do 
not  uncover  the  head,  nor  cease  their  conversation, 
neither  do  they  remove  from  their  lips  the  pipe  or  cigar  ; 
but  if  they  have  an  offering  to  make  they  do  it  in  the 
simplest  and  most  unceremonious  way,  and  then  go 
through  the  chin-chinning  performance  (bo wing  low  three 
times)  as  quick  and  as  slight  as  though  the  whole  pro- 
ceeding were  of  very  little  importance.  Occasionally  one 
will  prostrate  himself  before  his  deity  and  in  a  low  voice, 
mutter  a  prayer  ;  and  it  is  not  uncommon  for  the  female 
worshipers  to  conduct  themselves  very  reverently,  as  if 
they  felt  their  own  humility,  and  recognized  in  the  image 
before  them  a  very  superior  being,  worthy  of  everlasting 
adoration. 

The  priests  receive  their  support  from  the  sale  of  in- 
cense tapers,  paper  money  offerings,  incense  candles,  and 
the  like,  required  by  the  worshipers.  Many  visitors  also 
purchase  from  them  some  of  the  devotional  apparatus,  to 
keep  as  Chinese  curiosities. 

This  elaborate  display  of  gilt,  carving  and  room  orna- 
mentation, though  having  a  semblance  of  sacredness 
about  it,  really  comprehends  nothing  more  than  the  old 
Roman  oracles.  These  images  are  in  no  sense  regarded 

~  o 

as  gods,  but  merely  as  miniatures  of  wise  persons 
who  have  lived  in  the  flesh  and  died  at  periods  of  such 
popularity  that  their  memory  receives  this  canonization. 
The  Chinese  are  essentially  spiritualists,  if  anything,  as 


300  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

their  belief  is  in  the  eternity  of  matter,  and  mundane  as- 
sociation between  the  dead  and  living.  To  them  Con- 
fucius dead  possesses  the  same  potentiality  as  Confucius 
living,  hence  they  appeal  to  him  through  the  image  that 
represents  his  personality,  as  are  all  the  other  so-called 
gods  regarded.  Hence,  I  repeat,  there  is  no  well  defined 
religion  among  the  Chinese  respecting  a  deity,  heaven, 
or  future  rewards  and  punishments.  Some  few  sects  be- 
lieve in  horrible  atonements  for  the  simplest  infractions, 
or  at  least  such  theories  are  advanced,  but  after  critical 
investigation  I  am  convinced  that  they  are  the  result  of 
bug-a-boo  stories,  told  rather  to  frighten  than  promul- 
gated as  an  accepted  doctrine,  and  are  designed  to  restrain 
mischievous  children  instead  of  furnishing  an  incentive  to 
prepare  men  for  death. 

In  further  proof  of  my  belief  respecting  Chinese  faith, 
reference  may  be  had  to  the  manner  in  which  their  gods 
are  utilized ;  no  Chinaman  ever  thinks  of  praying  to 
them,  but  hopes  to  receive  their  favors  by  pandering  to 
their  supposed  avarice  or  bodily  comforts.  For  example  : 
when  a  Chinaman  contemplates  engaging  in  a  new  enter- 
prise, going  upon  a  voyage,  or  investing  in  a  lottery,  he  in- 
variably consults  his  god  before  so  doing  ;  he  is  prompted 
by  the  same  motive  that  induces  so  many  to  visit  for- 
tune-tellers. If  Confucius  were  living  now,  with  the 
renown  his  memory  bears,  Chinamen  would  consult  him 
as  to  their  future  with  the  same  belief  in  his  superior 
judgment,  as  they  now  have  for  his  spirit ;  his  wisdom  was 
exceedingly  great  when  living,  it  is  perhaps  improved  by 
gathering  the  experience  of  so  many  centuries  during  his 
spiritual  existence.  This  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  the 
estimation  placed  upon  the  Chinese  gods,  which  can  hardly 
be  called  a  definable  religious  belief — using  the  term  "re- 
ligious" in  its- common  acceptation. 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


301 


The  manner  of  consulting  these  oraculous  gods  is  as 
follows  :  The  Chinaman  who  desires  to  ascertain  the  out- 
come of  any  engagement  he  is  about  to  undertake,  re- 
pairs to  a  Joss  House  and  presents  himself  first  before  the 
god  he  is  about  to  consult,  and  then  to  the  priest  in  charge. 
He  then  states  his  name,  residence,  and  object  of  his  visit. 
The  priest  thereupon  passes  to  him  a  paste-board  cup 
partly  filled  with  bamboo  slips,  usually  one  hundred  in 


ASCERTAINING  THE  FUTURE  BY  DIVINING  STICKS. 

number,  upon  each  of  which  is  printed  a  single  sentence ; 
each  of  these  sentences  has  a  corresponding  answer  in  a 
book  of  oracles  kept  by  the  priest.  The  applicant,  upon 
taking  the  cup,  bows  reverentially  before  the  god,  after 
which  he  shakes  it  gently  until  one  of  the  slips  falls  out. 
Having  done  this,  he  rises  from  his  knees  and  picks  up 
the  slip,  which  he  places  on  the  censer  containing  burning 
incense  of  sandal  wood  ;  he  is  careful  to  place  the  side  of 
the  slip,  upon  which  the  sentence  is  written,  towards  the 
god.  The  priest  now  comes  forward,  takes  up  the  bam- 
boo slip  and  searches  for  its  answer  in  his  book  of  oracles. 


302  MYSTERIES    AM)    INI  I  SERIES. 

Should  the  answer  be  satisfactory,  the  enquirer  expresses 
his  joy  and  leaves  ;  but  should  it  indicate  ill  fortune,  the 
ceremony  is  repeated  for  a  confirmation,  sometimes  two 
or  more  times.  As  the  Chinese  are  very  superstitious, 
their  ceremonies  may  be  numbered  by  the  thousand. 
Exorcism  of  spirits  through  female  mediums  is  a  very 
common  practice,  and,  singular  to  relate,  these  mediums 
go  into  trances  and  talk  nonsense  just  as  our  civilized  seers 
do.  In  fact,  Chinese  and  American  spiritualism  is  iden- 
tical. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SOCIAL,  BUSINESS  AND    GENERAL    CHARACTERISTICS. 

THE  social  customs  of  the  Chinese  are  very  singular,  if 
not  mysterious.  To  describe  them  all  would  be  a  task 
which  I  confess  my  inability  to  perform  without  years  of 
previous  preparation.  Among  the  thousands  of  super- 
stitious practices  may  be  mentioned  the  following  in  sum- 
mary :  The  Chinese  have  no  glass  windows  in  their  houses 
in  their  native  country ;  they  employ  match-makers  Jo 
effect  engagements  and  marriage  ;  a  fortune-teller  is  con- 
sulted by  parents  before  consenting  to  the  marriage  of 
their  children  ;  betrothals  are  consummated  by  exchang- 
ing cards  ;  they  select  lucky  days,  and  perform  a  long 
series  of  divinations  and  ceremonies  before  marriage ; 
they  use  charms  to  ward  off  evil  spirits  ;  worship  the  god 
of  the  kitchen ;  they  betroth  unborn  children,  believing 
that  marriages  are  made  by  the  spirits ;  they  cannot 
marry  within  one  hundred  days  after  the  death  of  a. 


SAN  FKANCISCO.  303 

• 

parent ;  there  are  seven  reasons  for  divorcing  a  wife, 
and  three  for  divorcing  a  husband ;  married  women 
caught  in  adultery  are  punished  by  death  ;  they  perform 
many  singular  ceremonies  to  determine  the  sex  of  an  un- 
born child  ;  propitiate  two  female  demons  during  the 
period  of  pregnancy ;  after  birth  they  subject  the  infant 
to  a  series  of  prayer-offerings,  and  shave  its  head  when 
one  month  old.  They  worship  Confucius  in  the  schools 
by  special  ceremony  at  the  end  of  each  year  ;  they  punish 
children  for  unfilial  conduct  by  public  whipping — some- 
times to  death.  All  disease  is  attributed  to  an  angry 
god,  to  cure  Avhich  propitiation  is  made ;  the  god  of 
medicine  is  invited  to  visit  the  sick.  No  Chinaman  is 
permitted  to  die  in  his  own  house  if  it  can  be  avoided^; 
they  maintain  a  special  building  to  which  hopeless  cases 
are  carried  just  before  death  intervenes.  They  implore 
the  aid  of  certain  divinities  to  cure  small-pox;  they  beat 
a  gong  when  it  thunders  to  drive  away  evil  spirits  ;  they 
believe  that  all  epidemics  are  under  the  control  of  five 
rulers  whom  they  seek  to  appease  by  sacrifices  ;  they 
engage  in  idol  processions  as  a  token  of  gratitude  for  the 
recovery  of  the  sick  and  to  promote  longevity ;  they 
believe  that  when  dead  they  cannot  see  without  the  aid 
of  candles,  two  of  which  are  provided  ;  they  place  wine 
before  their  dead  and  burn  imitation  money  to  pay  their 
p:iss:ige  through  the  realms  of  shade,  and  perform  nu- 
merous other  strange  ceremonies  concernino;  the  final  dis- 

O  O 

position- of  the  dead,  some  of  which  will  be  hereafter 
described. 

There  is  a  very  broad  line  of  social  demarkation  be- 
tween the  rich  and  poor  Chinese,  especially  noticeable  in 
dress.  Among  Americans  fine  clothes  are  no  indication  of 
social  or  financial  condition,  but  with  the  Chinese  their 
garments  are  as  badges  of  distinction.  Those  who  have 


304  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

« 

wealth  wear  silk  skull-caps,  silk  blouses  and  white  silk 
stockings;  their  cue,  or  pig-tail,  is  also  generally  long- 
er and  with  richer  plaitings  than  those  supported  by 
the  poor  class.  In  deportment  there  is  a  like  difference, 
for  those  who  are  wealthy  manifest  the  finest  training 
and  culture,  which  no  ill-conditioned  subject  can  hope  to 
receive  in  his  native  country.  In  China,  which  is  over* 
run  with  a  redundant  population,  wealth  is  acquired  onty 


ARISTOCRATIC  CHINESE  FAMILY. 

by  hereditary  transmission  ;  there  are  no  opportunities 
offered  for  the  acquisition  of  riches  among  the  poor ; 
every  line  of  business  is  absorbed  by  families  who  have 
acquired  the  several  branches  by  inheritance,  conse- 
quently, those  who  are  unfortunately  born  poor,  however 
great  their  ambition,  can  never  enter  upon  the  path 
that  leads  either  to  wealth  or  fame.  To  this  is  due  the 
fact  that  only  the  rich  are  educated,  while  the  poor  are 
left  to  be  "  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water, "  with 
all  their  sensibilities  blunted,  and  their  minds  filled  with 
a  birthright  of  ignorance.  This  disparity  of  nature  is 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


305 


plainly  apparent  even  in  the  most  casual  meeting,  not 
alone  in  dress  but  equally  so  in  manner :  a  wealthy 
Chinaman  will  greet  you  with  gracious  suavity  and 
graceful  courtesy,  while  the  poor  class  acknowledge  a 
salutation  by  an  incomprehensible  grin  and  frustration 
which,  betray  their  own  acknowledged  inferiority. 

Since  the  Chinese  population  has  become  so  large  in 
San  Francisco,  this  Oriental  graft  has  set  up  their  ancient 
customs,  and  transplanted  in  American  soil  all  their  an- 


CHINESE  PUPIL  RECITING  HIS  LESSON. 

^estral  peculiarities.  There  are  three  or  four  schools 
established  iu  that  city,  and  also  a  weekly  newspaper 
which  has  attained  a  very  large  circulation.  Chinese 
school-rooms  are  almost  as  interesting  as  the  ceremonies 
in  a  Joss  House.  These  schools  are  held  in  rooms  be- 
longing to  a  private  family,  and  are  maintained  by  tuitions. 
Girls  are  seldom,  if  ever,  given  any  instruction,  as  educa- 
tion is  not  regarded  as  a  proper  qualification  for  them  to 
have.  Pupils  do  not  study  any  of  the  general  branches, 
such  as  geography,  mathematics,  history,  or  the  natural 
sciences,  but  are  confined  to  the  philosophic  writings  of 
Confucius  and  Mencius.  These  they  are  required  to 
20 


306  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

commit  to  memory,  and  recite  with  their  backs  toward 
the  book.  This  is  called  "backing  the  booh."  They  are 
not  taught  in  classes,  but  each  studies  the  book  he  pleases, 
taking  a  longer  or  shorter  lesson  according  to  his  ability. 
They  all  study  out  loud,  oftentimes  screaming  at  the  top 
of  their  voices.  They  first  learn  the  sounds  of  the  char- 
acters, so  as  to  recite  them  memorifn-.  After  years  of 
study  they  acquire  an  insight  into  their  meaning  and  use. 
They  commence  to  write  when  they  begin  going  to  school, 
tracing  the  characters  given  them  as  patterns  on  paper  by 
means  of  a  hair  pencil  and  China  ink.  It  requires  an  im- 
mense amount  of  practice  to  write  the  language  correctly 
and  rapidly. 

Notwithstanding  the  superior  facility  of  American  steel 
pens  and  writing  material,  the  Chinese  refuse  to  relin- 
quish their  hair-brush  pencils  and  coarse  paper.  These 
crude,  if  not  awkward,  facilities  may  be  found  plentifully 
scattered  about  every  business  house,  and  saucers  of  ink 
are  in  each  room  handy  to  all  who  wish  to  write. 

During  my  last  visit  to  San  Francisco^  in  order  to 
gratify  a  curiosity,  I,  with  two  companions,  dined  at  a 
first-class  Chinese  restaurant  and  partook  of  a  liberal  bill 
of  fare,  although  I  cannot  pronounce  the  feast  an  enjoy- 
able one.  outside,  the  humor  it  afforded.  The  restaurant 
has  much  about  its  exterior  similar  in  appearance  to  those 
conducted  by  Frenchmen,  but  the  interior  arrangement 
is  peculiar  to  the  Chinese.  There  are  three  floors  used  for 
eating  purposes ;  the  first,  or  ground  floor,  is  usually  a 
store  room  where  confections  are  sold,  and  is  supplied 
with  counters  off  which  luncheons  are  eaten.  Back  of 
this  room  is  the  culinary  department,  which  always  re- 
mains open  to  entrance  for  any  one  who  desires  to  inves- 
tigate the  mysteries  of  cauldrons,  kettles  and  ovens ;  a 
very  strong  but  not  unpleasant  odor  penetrates  the  whole 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


307 


building,  ;md  Jit  limes  il    becomes  appetizing  to  M,  hungry 
American.     The,  second    Hoot-  is  supplied   with   tables  at 

which  the  middle  class  of  Chinamen  dine,  and  this  depart- 
ment, of  coui-sc,  has  the  largest  patronage.     On  the.  ihinl 

is  Seen  a  lavish    furnishing  of  hrass   li^urc,  and  ar;i- 


EXTERIOR  VIEW  OF  CHINESE  RESTAURANT. 

hosquo  work,  part  i-<-oIorc(l  windows,  red  curtains  and 
lanterns  ;  also  beaut  i fully  inlaid  ebony  tables  supplied  with 
square  stools  of  fanciful  designs.  On  this  last  floor 
there  are  1  wo  departments,  one,  of  which  is  nse.d  for  gen- 
eral dining  purposes,  and  the,  other,  which  is  seclnd<-d, 
for  special  dinner  parties.  Everything  served  in  either 


308  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

of  these  rooms  brings  a  very  high  price,  so  that  theb 
patronage  is  exclusively  from  the  rich  Chinese.  As  I 
dined  in  this  latter  department,  a  description  of  the  ser- 
vice and  what  I  tried  to  eat,  is  interesting  enough  for  de- 
scription here. 

Upon  taking  seats  in  the  room  a  waiter  prepared  the 
banquet  by  first  covering  our  table  with  a  cloth  that  was 
so  badly  discolored  as  to  appear  positively  dirty,  but  I 
was  soon  convinced  that  the  brown  spots  were  due  to 
placing  hot  dishes  on  the  cloth,  which  had  scorched  the 
linen.  Being  entirely  ignorant  of  Chinese  dishes,  I 
ordered  the  several  courses  and  every  thing  usually  served 
at  first-class  dinners.  Our  waiter  thereupon  gave  a  ter- 
rific screech  which  startled  us  greatly,  but  as  he  did  not 
faint  I  remained  seated  to  discover  what  his  next  step 
would  be.  Presently  he  returned  to  us  with  three  sets  of 
chop-sticks.  These  gastronomic  adjuncts  serve  the  pur- 
pose of  knives  and  forks ;  they  are  nothing  more  than 
small  sticks  (made  sometimes  of  wood,  bone,  mahogany 
or  ivory)  a  little  longer  than  a  lead  pencil.  With  these 
we  were  expected  to  carve  and  spit  the  dishes  then  en 
route.  I  soon  ascertained  that  our  waiter,  who  had 
shouted  so  suddenlyand  lustily,  meant  us  no  harm  and 
least  expected  to  give  cause  for  surprise  ;  his  screech  was 
only  a  call  for  the  first,  course. 

Our  first  service  was  a  cup  of  tea,  made  in  so  simple  a 
manner  that  I  at  first  doubted  its  palatableness,  and  after 
I  drank  it  the  experience  fully  qualified  me  in  pronounc- 
ing its  merits  most  abominable.  Two  cups  were  brought 
for  each  person  ;  into  one  cup  a  few  dry  leaves  of  green 
tea  were  thrown  and  then  filled  with  boiling  water; 
another  cup  was  then  placed  over  the  one  containing  the 
tea,  when,  after  a  few  minutes  of  steeping,  the  tea  was 
declared  ready  for  drinking  without  any  sugar  or  milk 


FRANCISCO.  309 

accessories.  Following  the  tea  came  some  rare  dishes  of 
qui  ying,  hum  yang,  quachee,  alp  tain,  keong,  lai  clii  and 
lung  ngaln,  or,  converted  into  English,  sweet  cucumbers, 
melon  seeds,  candied  cherries,  sweet  pickled  duck,  celery 
and  eggs  mixed  with  ginger.  Some  of  these  we  tasted, 
but  others  were  sampled  by  the  nose. 

The  third  course  consisted  of  san  suey,  or  terrapin 
soup  seasoned  with  onions. 

The  fourth  was  ki  ton  yu  chee — sharks'  fins  stewed 
with  eggs;  roast  pig,  boned  duck,  called  chuen  alp; 
stewed  chicken,  fung  lut  su  ki;  boiled  oysters,  ho  see. 
Following  this,  or  the  fifth  course,  we  had  fen  gnon,  roast 
goose  ;  toon  goo  bale  hop,  mushrooms  and  leeks  ;  California 
quail ;  kni  wah  ham  cha  ho,  oysters  fried  in  batter ;  fu 
yue  chee,  sharks'  fins  fried  in  batter  ;  sut  yue,  pickled  cod- 
fish ;  cho  coo  bak  hop  moo  goo,  pigeon  stewed  with  leeks 
and  bamboo  sprouts. 

The  sixth,  or  pastry  co-arse,  developed  ha  yuk  kow 
chee,  fancy  rice  ctikes  ;  ki  tor*,  ko,  egg  cake  ;  hong  yon  mo, 
corn -starch  pudding  ;  chawng,  oranges  ;  pin  knon,  apples  ; 
heong  gav  chew,  bananas  ;  po  tie  chee,  grapes. 

The  last  thing  (as  well  as  the  first )  that  is  served  at  a 
Chinese  dinner  is  cha^  tea.  In  this  description  of  a  fash- 
ionable feast  I  have  mentioned  only  what  are  regarded  as 
aristocratic  dishes.  An  ordinary  meal  served  to  the 
wealthy  class  consists  wholly  of  sweet-meats,  such  as  pre- 
served fruits,  honeyed  rice,  and  balls  of  candied  sugar, 
resembling  hard  sauce  in  taste.  The  use  of  knives  aUthe 
table  is  almost  unknown  to  the  Chinese  people ;  every- 
thing they  eat  is  taken  up  by  two  chop-sticks  and  held  to 
the  mouth  to  be  eaten  by  biting,  but  it  requires  an  expert 
to  manipulate  them  ;  to  a  novice  these  sticks  are  sure  to 
prove  exasperating  ;  an  effort  to  use  them  is  generally  fol- 
lowed by  the  sticks  turning  suddenly  and  throwing  the 
eatable  so  held  either  into  your  own  or  neighbor's  lap. 


310  MYSTERIES  AND  MISERIES. 

Beef  and  potatoes  are  seldom  offered  at  a  Chinese  feast. 
The  Chinese  look  upon  the  killing  and  using  for  food  of 
cattle,  or  buffaloes,  as  a  very  great  sin,  as  they  are  val- 
able  for  beasts  of  burden.  There  is  a  tradition  among 
them  that  says  "the  killers  of  beef  shall  endure  punish- 
ment in  Hades  after  death.  Some  are  tossed  on  knives, 
others  on  hills  of  swords.  Some  have  red-hot  iron  poured 
down  their  throats,  and  others  are  tied  to  red-hot  posts. 
Through  the  eternal  ages  they  shall  not  be  born  again, 
or,  if  they  are,  they  become  buffaloes.  Butchers  have 
hearts  of  iron,  and  those  who  raise  buffaloes  to  kill  for 
beef  have  hearts  more  wicked  and  fierce  than  wolves  or 
tigers."  To  have  potatoes  for  dinner  is  considered  a 
sign  of  hardship  and  a  mark  of  extreme  poverty. 

A  small  opium  room  leads  off  from  the  dining  hall. 
This  is  furnished  luxuriantly,  and  those  who  desire  to  in- 
dulge in  the  time-killing  drug  may  repair  thither  after 
dinner  is  over,  and  reclining  at  ease  on  a  soft-cushioned 
couch,  pass  from  the  reality  of  splendid  oriental  surround- 
ings into  that  dream-land  where  the  heathen  celestial  so 
delights  to  roam — with  the  amber  mouth-piece  of  a  great 
sizzing  opium  pipe  between  his  teeth,  and  a  deathly  palor 
on  his  face. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

BUSINESS  AND  GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS  CONTINUED. 

CONSPICUOUS  in  Chinese  adornment  is  their  tonsure  and 
cue ;  the  pig-tail  is  a  peculiarity  of  these  people  that 
has  no  precedent  outside  of  Chinese  Tart  ary,  nor  a  follow- 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  311 

ing  in  any  other  country.  The  history  of  this  remark- 
able, if  not  destingue  custom  is  very  interesting,  and  as 
few  Americans,  even  though  residents  of  San  Francisco, 
are  familiar  with  the  reasons  why  Chinamen  affect  this 
quaint  custom,  the  following  bit  of  revelation  will  be 
valuable,  especially  since  it  is  made  by  the  Rev.  Justin 
Doolittle  in  his  popular  work  on  the  Chinese. 

"The  tonsure  of  the  common  people  and  mandarins, 
in  distinction  from  the  tonsure  of  the  members  of  the 
Taouist  and  of  the  Buddhist  priesthood,  consists  in  shav- 
ing the  whole  head  with  a  razor  once  in  ten  or  fifteen  days, 
excepting  a  circular  portion  on  the  crown  four  or  five 
inches  in  diameter.  The  hair  on  this  part  is  allowed  to 
grow  as  long  as  it  will,  and  is  braided  into  a  neat  tress  of 
three  strands.  It  naturally  falls  down  the  back.  The 
lower  extremity  of  the  cue  is  securely  fastened  with 
coarse  silk  so  that  it  will  not  unbraid.  The  ends  of  the 
silk  are  left  dangling.  When  the  cue  or  braid  of  hair 
is  not  of  itself  long  enough  to  suit  the  fancy  of  its  owner, 
it  is  lengthened  by  braiding  in  it  some  hair  which  has  been 
combed  out  of  other  people's  heads,  and  arranged  with 
great  care  in  bunches  for  this  use.  The  ambition  of 
some  is  not  satisfied  until  it  is  made  to  reach  down  within 
a  few  inches  of  the  ground.  When  at  work,  and  at  other 
times  when  the  cue  would  be  troublesome,  it  is  coiled 
about  the  head  or  thrown  around  the  neck ;  but  to  ap- 
pear in  the  presence  of  their  superiors  or  their  employers 
with  the  hair  thus  coiled  indicates  a  want  of  good  man- 
ners. 

"  Shaving  the  head,  as  above  described,  is  practiced  by 
all  classes  except  females,  Taouist  priests,  Buddhist  nuns, 
and  Buddhist  priests,  and  rebels  against  the  present  gov- 
ernment. Females,  unless  they  are  Buddhist  nuns,  are 
permitted  by  custom  and  by  law  to  wear  their  hair  with- 


312  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

out  braiding  it  into  a  cue.  If  they  become  such  nuns, 
they  must  shave  off  all  the  hair  from  their  heads  every 
ten  or  fifteen  days.  Taouist  priests  either  shave  their 
hair  like  the  common  people,  or  they  do  not  shave  at  all. 
The  hair,  left  long,  they  never  braid  like  the  common 
people,  nor  is  it  left  to  dangle  down  the  back,  but  it  is 
coiled  around  on  top  of  the  head  in  a  manner  peculiar  to 
their  sect.  Priests  of  the  Buddhist  religion  shave  off  all 
their  hair  as  smoothly  as  possible  two  or  three  times  every 
month.  The  reason  why  the  Buddhist  priesthood  shave 
their  heads  in  this  manner  is  explained  by  some  to  be  in- 
dicative of  a  desire  to  put  away  from  them  everything  of 
this  world  ;  they  do  not  claim  as  their  own  even  their  hair. 
"  The  tonsure  of  the  common  people  is  not  a  religious 
habit,  nor  is  it  originally  a  Chinese  fashion.  The  first 
emperor  of  the  present  dynasty,  who  began  to  reign  in 
1644,  having  usurped  the  Dragon  Throne,  determined  to 
make  the  tonsure  of  Manchuria,  his  native  country,  the 
index  and  proof  of  the  submission  of  the  Chinese  to  his 
authority.  He  therefore  ordered  them  to  shave  all  the 
head  excepting  the  crown,  and,  allowing  the  hair  on  that 
part  to  grow  long,  to  dress  it  according  to  the  cus- 
tom prevailing  in  Manchuria.  The  Chinese  had  been  ac- 
customed, under  native  emperors,  to  wear  long  hair  over 
the  whole  head,  and  to  arrange  it  in  a  tuft  or  coil  on  the 
crown.  As  might  be  expected,  the  arbitrary  command 
to  change  from  the  national  costume  to  the  shaven  pate 
and  dangling  cue  was  quite  unwelcome.  The  change 
was  gradual,  but  finally  prevailed  throughout  the  empire 
— so  gradual  that  at  the  commencement  of  the  reign  of 
Kanghi,  the  second  Tartar  emperor,  very  few  had  adopted 
the  custom  of  their  conquerors.  At  first,  those  who 
shaved  their  heads  and  conformed  to  the  laws  received, 
it  is  said,  the  present  of  a  tael/ of  silver;  after  awhile, 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  313 

only  half  a  tael,  and  then  only  a  tenth  of  a  tael,  and 
afterward  only  an  egg.  Finally,  even  an  egg  was  not 
allowed.  The  law  requiring  the  people  to  shave  the  head 
and  braid  the  cue  was  not  often  rigidly  enforced  by 
the  penalty  of  immediate  death,  but  it  became  very  man- 
ifest that  those  who  did  not  conform  to  the  wishes  of  the 
dominant  dj^nasty  would  never  become  successful  in  a 
lawsuit  against  those  who  did  conform,  nor  would  they 
succeed  at  the  literary  examinations.  Government  favor, 
as  regards  lawsuits  and  literary  examinations,  was  shown 
to  those  who  conformed  to  the  regulations  of  the  govern- 
ment. Some  of  the  proud  literati  and  gentry  absolutely 
refused  to  conform  to  the  degrading  and  foreign  custom, 
and  the  result  was  they  lost  not  only  their  long  hair,  but 
their  heads.  It  has  been  facetiously  remarked  by  some- 
body in  regard  to  this  matter,  that  there  was  more  than 
one  example  of  a  man  '  strangled  by  a  hair.'  At  the  end 
even  of  the  long  reign  of  Kanghi  the  change  was  not  com- 
pleted ;  but  during  the  reign  of  his  successor,  the  coil  of 
long  hair,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  Ming  dynasty, 
completely  gave  place,  in  that  part  of  the  empire,  to  the 
shaven  pate  and  the  braided  cue,  such  as  are  worn  by  the 
chiefs  of  the  Manchu  dynasty.  Ever  since,  in  sections  of 
the  empire  loyal  to  the  reigning  family,  the  present  fashion 
of  the  tonsure  and  the  cue  has  been  accepted  by  the  Chi- 
nese as  the  badge  of  servitude  to  the  Tartars.  Cropping 
or  cutting  the  hair  in  any  way  like  the  prevailing  fashions 
in  Europe  and  in  America  is  entirely  unknown  among  the 
Chinese. 

''These  facts  serve  to  explain  why  the  leaders  of  the  re- 
bellion in  the  centre  of  China  require  their  adherents, 
and  those  whom  they  conquer,  to  let  all  the  hair  grow, 
and  to  coil  it  in  a  tuft  on  the  head.  They  professedly 
adopt  the  national  costume  of  wearing  the  hair  which 


314  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

prevailed  under  the  Ming  dynasty,  that  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  present  one.  Long  hair  on  the  whole  head  is 
the  index  of  rebellion  against  the  Tartar  government  at 
Pekin.  Indeed,  the  common  name  for  the  rebels,  on  the 
part  of  the  Imperialists,  is  the  'long-haired  robbers.9 
Long  hair  on  the  whole  of  a  Chinaman's  head  means, 
when  interpreted  into  plain  English,  '  I  reject  the  Tartar 
supremacy.  I  own  no  foreign  master.  I  am  a  Chinese 
freeman,  and  my  hair  exhibits  my  sentiments  on  the  sub- 
ject.'  The  tonsure  and  the  caudle-like  appendage  pro- 
claim, '  1  am  not  my  own  master.  I  cannot  even  dress 
my  hair  according  to  my  pleasure.  I  do  not  conceal 
my  political  condition  and  character.  My  head  shows 
that  I  am  a  slave  to  the  Tartar  emperor.'  The  shaven 
pate  and  crown  advertise  that  the  person  is  a  devotee  of 
Buddha,  while  the  unb raided  coil  on  the  head,  with  or 
without  some  of  the  hair  around  the  head  shaven  off,  pro- 
claims the  man  to  be  a  priest  of  Rationalism.  An  inspec- 
tion of  the  head  of  a  Chinaman  will  indicate  to  the  be- 
holder the  political  status  or  the  religious  office  or  pro- 
fession of  the  man. 

4 '  No  Chinaman  would  dare  to  appear  in  the  streets  of 
Pekin,  or  in  any  other  part  of  China  subject  to  the  Pe- 
kin government,  with  his  head  dressed  in  the  national 
costume  of  the  last  native  dynasty,  nor  would  a  China- 
man persist  in  following  the  Tartar  custom  of  the  shaven 
head  and  the  braided  tress  in  any  of  the  districts  where 
the  pxjwer  of  the  rebels  prevails.  The  political  condition 
or  the  religious  profession  of  a  Chinese  is  indicated  by 
the  cut  of  his  hair  and  the  dressing  of  it,  as  plainly  as  the 
color  of  one's  neckcloth,  or  the  fashion  and  the  color  of 
one's  apparel,  in  some  Western  countries,  advertise  the 
wearer's  profession  or  rank. 

' '  Notwithstanding  the  foreign  origin  of  the  fashion,  the 


SAN  FKAK CISCO.  315 

Chinese  in  Southern  and  Northern  China,  where  the  Tar- 
tar power  prevails,  seem  to  be  much  attached  to  the  pres- 
ent manner  of  shaving  the  head  and  wearing  the  cue. 
They  take  great  pains  to  keep  the  cue  neat  and  good- 
looking,  just  as  though  it  was  an  honorable  instead  of  a 
disgraceful  and  degrading  badge.  They  appear  commonly 
to  have  entirely  forgotten  the  servile  object  and  the  vio- 
lent manner  of  its  introduction.  Some  twenty  or  thirty 
years  ago  the  idea  was  advanced  in  a  periodical  published 
at  Canton,  that  perhaps  it  would  require  as  much  violence 
now  to  cause  the  Chinese  to  revert  to  the  old  custom  of 
wearing  long  hair  on  all  the  head,  as  it  did  formerly  to 
make  them  adopt  the  tonsure  and  the  cue.  The  at- 
tachment to  the  present  custom  which  foreigners  observe 
is,  however,  believed  to  be  more  negative  than  positive, 
more  apparent  than  real.  It  may  be  satisfactorily  ex- 
plained by  the  influence  of  authority  and  the  power  of 
habit.  For  two  centuries,  nearly  every  male  in  China, 
except  rebels  or  priests,  has  shaven  the  pate  and  braided 
the  hair  growing  on  the  crown.  Now,  whatever  fashion 
every  one  adopts,  no  matter  what  may  be  its  origin,  de- 
sign, or  means  of  introduction,  eventually  becomes  rep- 
utable and  fashionable. 

"  The  rebellion,  having  for  its  object  the  restoration  of 
the  Imperial  throne  to  a  Chinese,  and  the  re-establish- 
ment of  Chinese  customs,  has  caused  the  minds  of  the 
native  literati  and  the  native  gentry  to  recall  the  national 
practices  of  the  preceding  dynasty  with  a  warm  and  hope- 
ful interest.  There  exists  an  ardent  desire  in  the  upper 
classes  of  Chinese  society  to  adopt  the  ancient  national 
customs  ;  but  they  have  no  option  in  the  matter.  Among 
the  rebels,  as  well  as  among  the  Imperialists,  there  is  no 
consultation  of  individual  preferences  or  national  tastes. 
Those  who  are  conquered  by  the  one  are  persuaded,  by 


316 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 


arguments  as  strong  as  life  and  death,  to  let  the  hair  on 
the  whole  head  grow,  while  those  under  the  authority  of 
the  other  party  are  compelled  to  shave  it  all  off  excepting 
on  the  crown,  and  to  braid  into  a  long  cue  that  which 
grows  on  the  crown.  As  a  consequence,  if  the  rebels 


A  CHINESE  BARBER. 


prevail,  the  fashion  of  dressing  the  hair  on  the  head  for 
the  whole  nation  will  become  essentially  what  it  was  in 
the  last  Chinese  dynasty.  But  where  and  while  the  Tar- 
tars rule,  every  Chinaman  will  continue  to  carry  on  his 
brow  and  to  dangle  at  his  back  the  accustomed  badge  of 
servitude  to  them." 

The  shaving  process  is  one  of  great  elaboration  and 
skill,  so  much  so  that  surprise  is  excited  as  to  how  the 
barbers  acquire  their  dexterity.  A  Chinaman  must  make 
special  preparations  before  undergoing  treatment  at  the 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  317 

barber's  hands,  for  it  requires  great  patience  and  a  long 
sitting.  His  face  and  head  are  first  shaved  with  a  razor 
that  bears  some  resemblance  to  the  old  style  hawk-bill 
knife,  though  scarcely  so  long.  After  shaving,  his  ears 
next  claim  attention  ;  they  are  washed  carefully,  and  then 
the  barber  draws  a  lance  looking  knife  with  which  every 
hair  growing  inside  the  ears  is  shaved  off  ;  after  this,  yet 
another  instrument  is  produced,  something  like  a  long 
bodkin,  which  is  inserted  into  the  orifice  of  the  ear  to  the 
drum,  and  so  manipulated  as  to  cleanse  the  recesses  of 
that  organ.  A  steady  hand  is  absolutely  essential  to  per- 
form this  latter  service,  hence  opium  smokers  cannot  fol- 
low the  tonsorial  art.  The  pig-tail  is  also  skilfully  dressed 
and  replaited,  the  whole  operation  usually  consuming  two 
hours  or  more,  and  all  this  time  the  customer  is  compelled 
to  sit  on  a  stool  without  any  support  to  his  back. 

The  Chinese,  though  singular  in  all  their  phases  of 
life,  are  none  the  less  cunning  in  the  prosecution  of  their 
business.  They  are  well  versed  in  subtle  ways,  whether 
at  the  card  table  or  conducting  a  regular  business,  and 
Americans  have  long  since  lost  their  ambition  for  leading 
John  into  tricks  of  trade. 

Some  years  ago  the  wealthiest  Chinese  of  San  Fran- 
cisco got  up  a  corner  on  pork,  and  they  managed  the 
scheme  so  successfully  that  they  have  ever  since  enjoyed 
a  monopoly  of  the  article  in  that  place.  Every  pound  of 
pork  or  lard  used  in  San  Francisco  must  go  through 
a  Chinaman's  hands,  #nd  so  potential  is  the  capital  these 
almond-hued  Orientals  control  that  there  is  little  hope 
that  the  monopoly  will  be  broken. 

As  there  are  large  trade  organizations  among  Ameri- 
cans, controlling  business  and  the  labor  of  poorer  classes, 
so  are  there  like  combinations  among  the  Chinese,  though 
among  the  latter  there  is  more  despotism  and  cohesion, 


318  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

owing  to  the  operation  of  a  provision  under  which  seyere 
penalties  are  inflicted  for  transgressions. 

Chief  among  the  social  and  business  organizations  of 
the  Chinese  in  San  Francisco  is  a  body  known  as  the  "Six 
Companies."  It  has  a  membership  of  ten  thousand  in  the 
city,  and  despotically  controls  every  Chinaman  on  the 
coast.  Its  name  is  a  very  tower  of  strength  and  unity. 
Though  as  generally  known  as  the  order  of  Free  Mason- 
ry, there  are  very  few  Americans  in  the  Golden  Gate 
city  who  know  anything  concerning  its  history.  Learn- 
ing this  I  consulted  a  priest  in  charge  of  one  of  the  Com- 
panies' Joss  Houses,  through  an  interpreter,  who  gave 
me  the  following  facts,  which  I  may  not  invidiously  say 
are  here  published  for  the  first  time  : 

The  Six  Companies  is  an  organization  that  represents 
the  results  of  a  revolution  that  occurred  in  China  about 
the  year  900.  China  is  divided  into  a  score  of  provinces, 
which,  at  the  time  referred  to,  were  governed  by  the 
Emperor  Low  Chung  Wong  (the  word  wong  menus 
emperor,  but  it  is  appended  to  special  names  as  an  affix 
of  honor,  the  same  as  the  suffix  "  Don  "  is  used  by  the 
Spanish  to  indicate  gentleman).  Low  Chung  Wong  is 
represented  as  having  been  an  imperious  and  cruel  ruler 
who  made  himself  so  repugnant  to  his  subjects  that  three 
of  the  principal  provinces  inaugurated  an  open  rebellion 
against  the  high  sovereign.  The  governors  of  these  three 
dependencies  formed  themselves  into  an  independent  con- 
federacy which  was  styled  the  i '  Quintye  Brotherhood , ' '  and 
after  issuing  a  rebellious  proclamation  they  attracted  to 
their  standard  all  but  four  of  the  provinces.  A  long  war 
followed ;  but  the  conspiracy  succeeded  in  overthrowing 
Low  Chung  Wong,  and  Quintye  Wong  was  established 
emperor.  This  ruler  proved  to  be  so  wise  and  just  that 
after  his  death  he  was  canonized ,  together  with  his  two 
brothers,  who  first  incited  the  rebellion. 


SAN  FEANCISCO.  319 

The  three  Quintyes  are  established  gods  and  their  images 
are  set  up  in  all  the  Joss  Houses  belonging  to  the  Six 
Companies.  This  organization  was  originally  known  as  the 
"  Three  Companies  "  and  represented  the  Quintyes  ;  their 
ostensible  purpose  was  to  foster  the  interests  of  a  certain 
part  of  China,  and  in  other  respects  it  was  a  fraternal  and 
mutual  benefit  organization.  After  the  order  was  estab- 
lished in  America  it  was  made  the  means  for  protecting 
the  temporal,  interests  of  Chinamen ,  but  while  doing  this 
those  who  held  the  chief  offices  managed  to  provide  so 
liberally  for  their  own  interests,  by  levying  and  collecting 
large  fees  or  tributes*  from  their  subjects,  that  some  of 
the  influential  members  rebelled.  The  result  of  this 
was  a  division  in  the  brotherhood,  which  led  to 
the  formation  of  three  other  branches  of  the  order,  and 
the  organization  has  ever  since  been  known  as  the  "Six 
Companies."  They  are  also  known  as  "Highbinders," 
and  claim  to  be  Freemasons,  with  no  motive  except  be- 
nevolence and  mutual  interests,  but  in  reality  they  are 
Nihilists,  at  sworn  enmity  not  only  with  the  Chinese  gov- 
ernment but  with  America  as  well.  They  entertain  the 
hope  that  their  strength  will  increase  so  rapidly  in  the 
United  States  that  they  will  soon  be  powerful  enough  to 
establish  their  own  Utopian  government  in  America. 
They  have  their  own  judges  and  police  officers,  and  very 
frequently  try,  condemn  and  execute  those  who  have  in- 
fracted their  law.  Many  Chinese  unite  with  the  order, 
not  because  they  are  in  accord  with  its  principles,  but  to 
escape  the  blackmail  and  persecution  to  which  non-mem- 
bers are  subjected. 

The  initiatory  cermonies,  through  which  candidates 
for  the  "Highbinder"  order  are  required  to  pass,  are 
said  to  be  absolutely  terrible,  being  apparently  designed 
to  test  vitality  and  courage.  The  applicant  is  first  di- 


320  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

vested  of  all  his  clothing,  and  then  conducted  to  a  table 
that  stands  in  the  center  of  a  dimly  lighted  hall.  He  is 
then  made  to  prostrate  himself  on  the  table,  to  which  he 
is  firmly  bound.  Following  this  part  of  the  ceremony 
six  members  clothed  like  devils  enter  and  approach  the 
helpless  candidate,  with  drawn  daggers,  and  carrying  la- 
dles full  of  melted  metal  in  their  left  hands.  The  dag- 
gers are  dripping  with  blood,  and  every  accessory  is 
intended  to  impress  the  subject  for  initiation  with  the  be- 
lief that  those  who  have  been  admitted  just  before  him 
were  drawn  and  quartered,  and  that  undoubtedly  melted 
lead  had  been  poured  down  their  throats  before  the  carv- 
ing-knives were  applied.  It  requires  about  two  hours  to 
initiate  a  candidate,  who  must,  during  all  this  time,  sub- 
mit to  a  constant  expectation  that  he  will  certainly  be 
immolated  the  next  moment. 

There  is  marked  distrust  among  the  members  of  the 
Six  Companies,  which  is  evidenced  by  the  manner  in 
which  their  funds  and  valuable  papers  are  protected.  Each 
order — there  being  two  now — has  six  directors,  who  act 
the  dual  part  of  directors  and  treasurers,  but  they  are  re- 
quired to  do  all  things  appertaining  to  the  funds  in  con- 
cert. Each  branch  of  the  order  is  provided  with  a  safe 
for  keeping  the  valuables,  and  these  safes  are  secured  by 
six  strong  locks,  the  keys  to  which  are  entrusted  one  to 
each  of  the  six  directors, -and  when  the  safes  are  opened 
every  director  is  required  to  be  present  to  unbar  his  re- 
spective lock.  But  even  this  precaution  does  not  prevent 
a  misappropriation  of  the  secret  order  funds,  which  I  am 
told  are  used  by  the  officers  under  the  plea  of  expendi- 
tures incurred  in  assisting  needy  Chinamen,  or  promoting 
their  interests  in  America, 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  321 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  Chinese  in  America  may  be  classed  among  heath- 
ens, as  they  are  ;  their  unprogressive  spirit  may  be  con- 
demned, and  they  may  deserve  abuse  for  practicing  a 
frugality  which  is  synonymous  with  filthiuess,  but  their 
shrewdness  cannot  be  denied.  They  have  had  less  ad- 
vantages in  labor  competition  than  any  other  race  on  our 
soil,  yet  their  prosperity  has  been  marked  and  rapid. 
This  fact,  however,  I  attribute  chiefly  to  one  thing,  viz. : 
they  use  no  intoxicating  drink.  Few  men  remain  in  pov- 
erty who  abstain  from  spirituous  liquors,  and  as  the  Chi- 
nese are,  aside  from  their  opium  practice,  the  most  tem- 
perate people  in  America,  their  advancement  is  only 
natural .  Industry  and  temperance  are  the  stepping  stones 
to  both  fortune  and  health,  and  by  observing  these  no 
man  can  remain  poor.  Yet  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that 
the  Chinese  have  been  rather  a  detriment  than  an  advan- 
tage to  the  people  of  this  country.  It  is  manifestly  unfair 
to  place  native  laborers  in  competition  with  these  celes- 
tial pagans,  for  the  reason  that  Americans  have  been 
raised  amid  customs  and  surroundings  diametrically  oppo- 
site to  those  which  influence  the  habits  of  Chinese.  The 
fact  that  one  may  thrive  on  the  flesh  of  rats  and  dogs  is 
no  reason  why  others,  who  do  not  relisli  such  inexpen- 
sive diet,  should  be  forced  to  subsist  upon  it.  The  dif- 
ference consists  in  raising,  and  honorable  competition  does 
not  demand  a  conformation  to  all  habits  because  they  are 
cheap.  Considering  the  question  of  Chinese  immigration, 
21 


322  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

(in  its  effects  upon  our  native  laboring  population)  in  the 
broadest  sense  of  justice,  and  in  recognition  of  that  uni- 
versal axiom  "  self  preservation  is  the  first  law  of  nature," 
we  cannot  otherwise  conclude  than  that  the  Chinese  are 
an  injury  to  our  popular  institutions.  How  the  injury 
shall  be  remedied  is  a  problem  for  statesmen  to  solve. 

The  agitation,  which  has  developed  chiefly  on  the  Pa- 
cific coast,  against  further  Chinese  immigration,  has  been 
carefully  watched  and  studied  by  these  despised  Orientals. 
Recognizing  their  position  as  being  seriously  prejudiced 
by  public  clamor,  the  Chinese,  through  their  Six  Com- 
panies organization,  prepared  a  memorial  in  1874,  in 
which  is  cleverly  set  forth  all  their  claims  to  citizenship, 
and  answers  to  the  opposition  set  up  against  them.  This 
document  bears  the  impress  of  ingenious  diplomacy,  if 
not  sophistry,  and  conclusively  shows  the  inherent  and 
acquired  cunning  intelligence  of  these  really  adroit  peo- 
ple. The  memorial,  though  full  of  exaggeration,  and 
omissions  of  ugly  facts,  is  so  effectively  worded,  and  at 
the  same  time  presents  such  a  striking  phase  in  the  ques^ 
tion  of  a  proposed  modification  of  the  Burlingame  treaty, 
that  it  is  herewith  presented  in  its  entirety  : 

MEMORIAL   OF   THE   SIX   CHINESE   COMPANIES. 

To  His  EXCELLENCY  U.  S.  GRANT,  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED 

STATES  OF  AMERICA. 

SIR  :  In  the  absence  of  any  Consular  representative,  we,  the 
undersigned,  in  the  name  and  in  behalf  of  the  Chinese  people 
now  in  America,  would  most  respectfully  present  for  your  consid- 
eration the  following  statements  regarding  the  subject  of  Chinese 
emigration  to  this  country : 

I.  We  understand  that  it  has  always  been  the  settled  policy  of 
your  honorable  government  to  welcome  emigration  to  your  shores 
from  all  countries,  without  let  or  hindrance.    The  Chinese  are  not 
the  only  people  who  have  crossed  the  ocean  to  seek  a  residence 
in  this  land. 

II.  The  treaty  of  amity  and  peace  between  the  United  States 
and  China  makes  special  mention  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of 


SAN  FKANCISCO.  323 

Americans   in   China,  and  also  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
Chinese  in  America. 

III.  American  steamers,  subsidized  by  your  honorable  Govern- 
ment, have  visited  the  ports  of  China,  and  invited  our  people  to 
come  to  this  country  to  find  employment  and  improve  their  con- 
dition.    Our  people  have  been  coming  to  this  country  for  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  but  up  to  the  present  time  there  are  only  150,- 
ooo  Chinese  in  all  these  United  States,  60,000  of  whom  are  in 
California,  and  30,000  in  the  city  of  San  Francisco. 

IV.  Our  people  in  this  country,  for  the  most  part,  have  been 
peaceable,  law-abiding  and  industrious.     They    performed    the 
largest  part  of  the  unskilled  labor  in  the  construction  of  the  Central 
Pacific  Railroad,  and  also  of  all  other  railroads  on  this  coast. 
They  have  found  useful  and  remunerative  employment  in  all  the 
manufacturing  establishments  of  this  coast,  in  agricultural  pursuits, 
and  in  family  service.     While  benefiting  themselves  with  the  hon- 
est reward  of  their  daily  toil,  they  have  given  satisfaction  to  their 
employers  and  have  left  all  the  results  of  their  industry  to  enrich 
the  State.     They  have  not  displaced  white  laborers  from  these 
positions,  but  have  simply  multiplied  the  industrial  enterprises  of 
the  country. 

V.  The  Chinese  have  neither  attempted  nor  desired  to  interfere 
with  the  established  order  of  things  in  this  country,  either  of  poli- 
tics or  religion.     They  have  opened  no  whiskey  saloons  for  the 
purpose  of  dealing  out  poison  and  degrading  their  fellow-men. 
They  have  promptly  paid  their  duties,  their  taxes,  their  rents,  and 
their  debts. 

VI.  It  has  often  occurred,  about  the  time  of  the  State  and  gen- 
eral elections,  that  political  agitators  have  stirred  up  the  minds  of 
the  people  in  hostility  to  the  Chinese,  but  formerly  the  hostility  has 
usually  subsided  after  the  elections  were  over. 

VII.  At  the  present  time  an  intense  excitement  and  bitter  hos- 
tility against  the  Chinese  in  this  land,  and  against  further  Chinese 
immigration,  has  been  created  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  led  on 
by  His  Honor,  the  Mayor  of  San  Francisco  and  his  associates  in 
office,  and  approved  by  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  and  other 
great  men  of  the  State.     These  great  men  gathered  some  20,000 
of  the  people  of  this  city  together  on  the  evening  of  April  5th, 
and  adopted  an  address  and  resolutions  against  Chinese  immi- 
gration.    They  have  since  appointed  three  men  (one  of  whom  we 
understand  to  be  the  author  of  the  address  and  resolutions)  to 
carry  that  address  and  those  resolutions  to  your  Excellency,  and 
to  present  further  objections,  if  possible,  against  the  emigration  of 
the  Chinese  to  this  country. 

VIII.  In  that  address  numerous  charges  are  made  against  our 


324  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

people,  some  of  which  are  highly  colored  and  sensational,  and 
others,  having  no  foundation  whatever  in  fact,  are  only  calculated 
to  mislead  honest  minds  and  create  an  unjust  prejudice  against 
us.  We  wish  most  respectfully  to  call  your  attention,  and  through 
you  the  attention  of  Congress,  to  some  of  the  statements  of  that 
remarkable  paper,  and  ask  a  careful  comparison  of  the  statements 
there  made  with  the  facts  of  the  case. 

(a.)  It  is  charged  against  us  that  not  one  virtuous  Chinawoman 
has  been  brought  to  this  country,  and  that  here  we  have  no  wives 
nor  children.  The  fact  is,  that  already  a  few  hundred  Chinese 
families  have  been  brought  here.  These  are  all  chaste,  pure,  keep- 
ers-at-home, not  known  on  the  public  street.  There  are  also  among 
us  a  few  hundred,  perhaps  a  thousand,  Chinese  children  born  in 
America.  The  reason  why  so  few  of  our  families  are  brought  to 
tttis  country  is  because  it  is  contrary  to  the  custom  and  against 
the  inclination  of  virtuous  Chinese  women  to  go  so  far  from  home, 
and  because  the  frequent  outbursts  of  popular  indignation  against 
our  people  have  not  encouraged  us  to  bring  our  families  with  us 
against  their  will.  Quite  a  number  of  Chinese  prostitutes  have 
been  brought  to  this  country  by  unprincipled  Chinamen,  but  these 
at  first  were  brought  from  China  at  the  instigation  and  for  the 
gratification  of  white  men.  And  even  at  the  present  time  it  is 
commonly  reported  that  a  part  of  the  proceeds  of  this  villainous 
traffic  goes  to  enrich  a  certain  class  of  men  belonging  to  this  hon- 
orable nation  —  a  class  of  men,  too,  who  are  under  solemn  obli- 
gations to  suppress  the  whole  vile  business,  and  who  certainly 
have  it  in  their  power  to  suppress  it  if  they  so  desired.  A  few 
years  ago,  our  Chinese  merchants  tried  to  send  these  prostitutes 
back  to  China,  and  succeeded  in  getting  a  large  number  on  board 
the  outgoing  steamer,  but  a  certain  lawyer  of  your  honorable  na- 
tion (said  to  be  the  author  and  bearer  of  these  resolutions  sagainst 
our  people),  in  the  employ  of  unprincipled  Chinamen,  procured  a 
writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  brought  all  those  women  on  shore 
again,  and  the  courts  decided  that  they  had  a  right  to  stay  in  this 
country  if  they  so  desired.  Those  women  are  still  here,  and  the 
only  remedy  for  this  evil,  and  also  for  the  evil  of  Chinese  gam- 
bling, lies,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  in  an  honest  and  impartial  admin- 
istration of  municipal  government,  in  all  its  details,  even  includ- 
ing the  Police  Department.  If  officers  would  refuse  bribes,  then 
unprincipled  Chinamen  could  no  longer  purchase  immunity  from 
the  punishment  of  their  crimes. 

(b.)  It  is  charged  against  us  that  we  have  purchased  no  real 
estate.  The  general  tone  of  public  sentiment  has  not  been  such 
as  to  encourage  us  to  invest  in  real  estate,  and  yet  our  people 
have  purchased  and  now  own  over  $800,000  worth  of  real  estate 
in  San  Francisco  alone. 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  325 

(c.)  It  is  charged  against  as  that  we  eat  rice,  fish,  and  vege- 
tables. It  is  true  that  our  diet  is  slightly  different  from  the  peo- 
ple of  this  honorable  country ;  our  tastes  in  these  matters  are  not 
exactly  alike,  and  cannot  be  forced.  But  is  that  a  sin  on  our 
part  of  sufficient  gravity  to  be  brought  before  the  President  and 
Congress  of  the  United  States  ? 

(d.)  It  is  charged  that  the  Chinese  are  no  benefit  to  this 
country.  Are  the  railroads  built  by  Chinese  labor  no  benefit  to 
the  country  ?  Are  the  manufacturing  establishments,  largely- 
worked  by  Chinese,  no  benefit  to  this  country  ?  Do  not  the  re- 
sults of  the  daily  toil  of  a  hundred  thousand  men  increase  the 
riches  of  this  country  ?  Is  it  no  benefit  to  this  country  that  the 
Chinese  annually  pay  over  $2,000.000  duties  at  the  Custom-house 
of  San  Francisco?  Is  not  the  $200,000  annual  poll-tax  paid  by 
the  Chinese  any  benefit  ?  And  are  not  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars  taxes  on  personal  property,  and  the  foreign  miners'  tax, 
annually  paid  to  the  revenues  of  this  country,  any  benefit  ? 

(e.)  It  is  charged  against  us  that  the  Six  Chinese  Companies 
have  secretly  established  judicial  tribunals,  jails  and  prisons,  and 
secretly  exercise  judicial  authority  over  the  people.  This  charge 
has  no  foundation  in  fact.  These  Six  Companies  were  originally 
organized  for  the  purposes  of  mutual  protection  and  care  of  our 
people  coming  to  and  going  from  this  country.  The  Six  Com- 
panies do  not  claim,  nor  do  they  exercise  any  judicial  authority 
whatever,  but  are  the  same  as  any  tradesmen  or  protective  and 
benevolent  societies.  If  it  were  true  that  the  Six  Companies  ex- 
ercise judicial  authority  over  the  Chinese  people,  then  why  do  all 
the  Chinese  people  still  go  to  American  tribunals  to  adjust  their 
differences,  or  to  secure  the  punishment  of  their  criminals  ? 
Neither  do  these  companies  import  either  men  or  women  into 
this  country. 

(f.)  It  is  charged  that  all  Chinese  laboring  men  are  slaves. 
This  is  not  true  in  a  single  instance.  Chinamen  labor  for  bread. 
They  pursue  all  kinds  of  industries  for  a  livelihood.  Is  it  so  then 
that  every  man  laboring  for  his  livelihood  is  a  slave  ?  If  these 
men  are  slaves,  then  all  men  laboring  for  wages  are  slaves. 

(g.)  It  is  charged  that  the  Chinese  commerce  brings  no  bene- 
fit to  American  bankers  and  importers.  But  the  fact  is  that  an 
immense  trade  is  carried  on  between  China  and  the  United  States 
by  American  merchants,  and  all  the  carrying  business  of  both 
countries,  whether  by  steamers,  sailing  vessels  or  railroads,  is 
done  by  Americans.  No  China  ships  are  engaged  in  the  carry- 
ing traffic  between  the  two  countries.  Is  it  a  sin  to  Hbe  charged 
against  us  that  the  Chinese  merchants  are  able  to  conduct  their 
mercantile  business  on  their  own  capital  ?  And  is  not  the  ex- 


326  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

change  of  millions  of  dollars  annually  by  the  Chinese  with  the 
banks  of  this  city  any  benefit  to  the  banks  ? 

(h.)  We  respectfully  ask  a  careful  consideration  of  all  the 
foregoing  statements.  The  Chinese  are  not  the  only  people,  nor 
do  they  bring  the  only  evils  that  now  afflict  this  country.  And 
since  the  Chinese  people  are  now  here,  under  solemn  treaty  rights, 
we  hope  to  be  protected,  according  to  the  terms  of  this  treaty; 
but  if  the  Chinese  are  considered  detrimental  to  the  best  interests 
of  this  country,  and  if  our  presence  here  is  offensive  to  the  Amer- 
ican people,  let  there  be  a  modification  of  existing  treaty  relations 
between  China  and  the  United  States,  either  prohibiting  or  limit- 
ing further  Chinese  immigration,  and,  if  desirable,  requiring  also 
the  gradual  retirement  of  the  Chinese  people  now  here  from  this 
country.  Such  an  arrangement,  though  not  without  embarrass- 
ments to  both  parties,  we  believe  would  not  be  altogether  unac- 
ceptable to  the  Chinese  government,  and  doubtless  it  would  be 
very  acceptable  to  a  certain  class  of  people  in  this  honorable 
country. 

With  sentiments  of  profound  respect, 

LEE  WING  How, 

President  SamYup  Company. 
LEE  CHEE  KWAN, 

President  Yung  Wo   Company. 
LAW  YEE  CHUNG, 

President   Kong  Chow  Company, 

CHANG  LEUNG  KOK, 

President  Wing  Yung  Company. 
LEE  CHEONG  CHIP, 

President  Hop  Wo  Company. 
CHAN  KONG  CHEW, 

President  Yan  Wo  Company. 
LEE  TONG  HAY, 
President  Chinese  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 

This  memorial  has  not  had  aTwide  circulation,  nor  was 
its  cogency  recognized  to  any  appreciable  extent  by  either 
the  President  or  Congress.  Several  bills  have  been  in- 
troduced in  the  national  Legislature  restricting  Chinese 
immigration,  and  one,  which  was  presented  to  the  Con- 
gress of  1882,  has  much  in  it  to  recommend  its  passage. 
There  is  some  doubt  now  whether  more  Chinese  are  com- 
ing to  our  shores  than  are  departing,  but  it  is  believed 
that  during  the  year  1881  there  was  a  very  slight  increase 
in  Chinese  population. 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  327 


CHAPTER  X. 

• 

CHINESE    FUNERAL    CEREMONIES. 

HAYING  treated  the  Chinese  in  their  several  phases  of 
social,  private,  public,  business  and  religious  life,  I  will 
dismiss  the  subject  with  a  description  of  the  ceremonies 
practiced  by  them  in  disposing  of  their  dead,  as  this 
last  consideration  of  the  race  permits  us  to  bid  them 
adieu  both  corporeally  and  spiritually.  It  is  only  pos- 
sible, in  a  limited  space,  to  give  an  outline  of  the  burial 
and  mourning  customs,  for  the  reason  that  these  cere- 
monies are  so  numerous  and  peculiar  that  it  requires  en- 
cyclopedian  knowledge  and  space  to  give  them  proper 
description.  In  San  Francisco,  however,  where  there  are 
so  few  wives  or  children,  the  Chinese  do  not  practice 
rites  so  extensive  as  in  their  native  country,  where  cere- 
monies are  participated  in  by  all  the  relatives  of  a  de- 
ceased person.  When  a  poor  Chinaman  dies  in  America 
he  is  given  temporary  burial ;  after  lying  in  the  ground 
for  one  year  the  body  is  resurrected  and  what  remains  of 
it  is  packed  in  a  tight  box  and  shipped  to  China  for  per- 
manent burial.  In  cases  where  these  subjects  leave  no 
means  to  provide  transportation  for  their  bodies,  the  ex- 
pense so  incurred  is  paid  out  of  a  fund  kept  for  the  pur- 
pose by  Chinese  charity  institutions. 

There  are  two  reasons  why  a  Chinaman's  body  is  not 
permitted  to  rest  forever  after  death  in  a  grave  on  foreign 
soil ;  first,  as  previously  explained,  because  these  strange 
people  believe  they  are  the  true  Celestials  ;  that  China  is 
the  land  over  which  all  blessed  spirits  hover ;  and  that  a 


328  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

Chinaman,  worthy  to  live  hereafter  in  a  spiritual  exist- 
ence, cannot  enter  a  beatific  condition  save  through  a 
Chinese  grave.  The  second  reason  is  that  the  laws  of 
China  do  not  permit  a  native  subject  to  alienate  himself 
by  naturalization  in  a  foreign  country  ;  once  a  subject  of 
the  Chinese  Emperor  always  a  subject,  is  the  spirit  of 
this  law,  and  those  who  disobey  the  mandate  forfeit  their 
lives.  No  Chinaman  can  take  out  naturalization  papers 
in  America  and  return  again  to  China  without  endanger- 
ing his  life,  for  should  it  become  known  he  would  be  ar- 
rested and  put  to  death  by  the  most  cruel  and  diabolical 
means.  This  stringent  law  acts  as  a  powerful  deterrent, 
and  is  the  excuse  for  Chinamen  not  becoming  citizens. 
Some  of  them,  however,  do  become  naturalized,  but  in 
accepting  our  protection  they  renounce  all  hope  of  ever 
again  seeing  their  flowery  kingdom.  Ninety-nine  out  of 
every  hundred  have  no  disposition  to  abandon  their  own 
country,  being  influenced  chiefly  by  their  superstition, 
and  therefore  desire  to  manifest  their  obedience  to  the 
emperor  by  returning  again  to  China  even  in  the  investi- 
ture of  death. 

Referring  to  the  burial  ceremonies  performed  over 
bodies  of  adult  persons,  who  have  some  wealth  and 
friends,  the  first  thing  done  is  to  bid  farewell  to  the  de- 
ceased. This  ceremony  consists  in  an  assembling  of  all 
the  relatives  and  friends  about  the  dead  body,  when  all 
attest  their  grief  by  a  concert  of  lamentations.  After 
thus  crying  aloud  for  several  minutes,  two  candles  are 
produced  and  set  upon  a  table,  which  may  occupy  any 
part  of  the  room ,  while  at  the  same  time  a  bowl  contain- 
ing incense  is  also  placed  on  the  table  and  set  on  fire. 
The  candles  are  intended  to  light  the  way  for  the  spirit, 
which  is  supposed  to  be  in  darkness  until  after  the  lapse 
of  a  certain  period ;  the  incense  is  used  as  an  offering  of 
esteem. 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  329 

In  every  case  where  the  deceased  has  a  family,  with 
either  a  betrothed  or  married  daughter,  a  very  singular 
ceremony  is  performed,  called  "turning  the  bridge  lad- 
der." Generally  several  priests  are  engaged  to  prepare 
the  *  *  bridge-ladder  "  an  d  assist  in  the  ceremonies .  To  con- 
duct this  part  of  the  funeral  rite,  a  post  some  seven  or 
eight  feet  high  is  placed  in  a  socket  or  frame  standing  on 
the  ground  in  a  perpendicular  position.  Into  holes  made 
in  the  sides  o45  this  post  are  fastened  several  tiers  of  sticks 
of  bamboo,  two  or  three  feet  long.  These  sticks  project 
outward  and  upward  a  little  from  the  perpendicular  post. 
Sometimes  these  sticks  amount  to  several  tiers.  The 
longer  ones  are  placed  toward  the  bottom,  and  the  shorter 
ones  toward  the  top,  the  lowest  tier  being  three  or  four 
feet  from  the  ground.  At  the  extreme  outer  end  of  each 
is  suspended  by  a  wire  a  kind  of  glass  cup  containing  oil 
and  wicking,  the  whole  constituting  a  lamp.  On  the  top 
of  the  upright  post  is  placed  a  candle.  Into  a  hole, 
about  three  feet  from  the  ground,  made  in  the  upright 
post,  is  inserted  a  pole,  projecting  at  a  right  angle,  some 
two  or  three  feet  longer  than  the  longest  of  the  sticks 
having  lamps  at  their  end.  This  "bridge-ladder"  is 
placed  in  the  middle  of  the  room.  On  one  side  of  the 
room  is  placed  a  table  having  candles  and  incense  upon  it. 
On  the  wall  or  partition  of  the  room  by  this  table  are 
suspended  one  or  two  large  paper-hangings  relating  to  the 
infernal  regions.  The  body  of  the  deceased  is  lying  on 
one  side  of  the  room,  or  if  there  is  an  adjoining  room 
which  can  be  used  it  is  placed  in  it. 

When  everything  is  ready  the  ceremony  is  commenced 
by  lighting  the  lamps  and  candle  on  the  "bridge-ladder," 
as  well  as  the  candles  and  incense  on  the  table.  The 
priests  chant  their  liturgy  amid  the  noise  of  cymbals. 
The  married  daughter  comes  forward,  having  a  white 


330 


MYSTERIES   AXD   MISERIES. 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  331 

cotton  cloth  bound  about  her  head,  partly  concealing  her 
eyes,  or  she  holds  to  her  eyes  a  white  cotton  cloth  much 
as  one  would  a  handkerchief  while  crying.  The  eldest 
son  of  the  deceased,  if  there  be  a  living  son,  now  ad-, 
vances,  and,  taking  hold  of  the  end  of  the  long  pole, 
pushes  gently  against  it ;  the  post  turning  in  its  socket, 
the  entire  "bridge-ladder"  moves.  The  wife  of  the 
eldest  son,  his  younger  brothers  and  their  wives,  the 
married  daughter  of  the  deceased  and  her  children,  &c., 
now  follow  slowly  the  elder  brother  as  he  pushes  around 
the  "bridge-ladder"  for  a  few  times. 

In  case  there  is  no  son,  a  married  or  affianced  daughter 
leads  the  company.  During  the  period  that  this  "  bridge- 
ladder"  is  thus  made  to  revolve  all  of  the  party  join  in 
loud  lamentation  and  wailing.  Their  outcry,  taken  in 
connection  with  the  chanting  of  the  priests  and  the  noise 
of  the  cymbals,  make  a  very  confused  hubbub  and  tumult 
of  voices  and  sounds.  These,  together  with  the  sight  of 
so  many  lamps  and  candles  burning  brightly  in  broad 
daylight,  produce  a  very  singular  spectacle  for  the  foreign 
beholder,  which,  once  seen,  will  not  be  quickly  forgotten. 

The  object  of  this  performance  with  the  "bridge- 
ladder"  is  to  lighten  and  assist  the  deceased  on  his  way. 
It  is  called  "bridge-ladder"  because  it  is  fancied  to 
resemble  a  bridge  and  a  ladder.  The  bridge  would  aid 
the  dead  to  pass  rivers,  and  the  ladder  would  aid  him  to 
climb  steep  places,  should  he  meet  such  impediments  in 
his  journey.  * 

After  the  ceremony  of  * '  turning  around  the  bridge- 
ladder'9  has  been  concluded,  and  after  the  body  has  been 
dressed  for  the  coffin  according  to  custom,  it  is  usually 
placed  on  the  cover  of  the  coffin.  The  eldest  son  now 
approaches  and  kneels  down  before  the  corpse.  He  then 
takes  a  cup  of  wine  and  offers  it  to  the  dead  three  times. 


332  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

He  then  takes  some  cooked  vermicelli,  by  means  of  chop- 
sticks, out  of  a  bowl,  and  presents  it  to  the  mouth  of  the 
dead  three  times.  After  this  he  takes  a  bowl  of  cooked 
rice,  and  makes  a  presentation  in  similar  manner  three 
times.  While  he  is  performing  these  filial  acts,  all  the 
rest  of  the  family,  brothers,  sisters,  and  grandchildren, 
except  the  partner  of  the  dead  and  those  higher  in  rank, 
kneel  down  around  the  corpse  and  pour  out  their  lamen- 
tations. If  the  eldest  son  of  the  deceased  has  previously 
died,  his  eldest  son,  if  he  has  one,  takes  his  place.  In 
case  he  has  no  son  living,  some  one  who  has  been  adopted 
as  the  eldest  son  performs  the  ceremony,  the  second  or 
the  third,  or  any  other  of  their  children,  never  perform- 
ing this  ceremony  unless  adopted  as  the  heir  and  repre- 
sentative of  the  eldest  son.  Sometimes,  in  wealthy  fam- 
ilies, a  professor  of  ceremonies  is  employed  to  direct  the 
eldest  son  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  on  this  occasion 
according  to  established  rules.  The  eldest  son  at  this 
time  wears  a  cap,  with  his  clothing  properly  arranged, 
and  having  shoes  upon  Jiis  feet ;  but  previously  he  has 
appeared  with  disheveled  hair,  clothing  disarranged,  and 
in  his  stocking  feet. 

After  wine  and  food  have  been  offered  to  the  dead, 
and  just  before  clothing  the  corpse  in  its  final  cerements, 
a  small  chair,  usually  made  of  split  bamboo  and  paper, 
is  set  on  the  ground  outside  the  house.  About  this  chair 
are  placed  four  effigies,  in  front  of  each  being  a  cup  of 
wine  and  some  rice  cakes.  After  this  ceremony  is  com- 
pleted the  priests  begin  to  chant  their  liturgies  again ,  and 
the  clashing  of  cymbals  is  renewed  ;  at  the  same  time  a 
fire-brand  is  applied  to  the  chair  and  effigies,  which  are 
speedily  consumed.  This  chair  is  provided  for  the  dead 
man's  spirit,  with  the  charitable  supposition  that  he 
would  prefer  sitting  to  standing  during  his  transportation 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  333 

to  the  realms  of  eternal  shade,  and  the  wine  and  rice 
cakes  are  to  serve  as  food  during  his  journey.  The  four 
effigies  represent  the  servants  who  will  carry  him  to  eter- 
nity, and  these  are  expected  to  also  partake  of  the  food 
burned  with  them. 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  ceremony  the  corpse  is  dressed 
in  what  is  called  "longevity"  clothes,  so  named  because 
they  shall  last  for  all  time.  These  clothes  are  made  of 
various  fabrics,  according  to  the  financial  standing  of  the 
deceased.  It  is  a  rule  with  the  Chinese  that  in  perform- 
ing this  part  of  the  funeral  rites,  two  more  garments 
must  be  placed  upon  the  upper  than  upon  the  IOAVCX  part 
of  the  body.  After  the  grave  clothes  have  been  placed 
on  the  corpse  the  body  is  tightly  bound  around  with  sev- 
eral strips  of  cloth,  two  of  which  must  be  red  and  one 
white,  and  these  strips  are  brought  together  and  tied  in 
knots  over  the  body. 

Following  this  service  comes  the  ceremony  of  placing 
the  body  in  a  coffin.  Preparatory  to  this,  the  corpse, 
while  lying  on  the  cover  of  the  coffin,  is  turned  half  way 
around,  so  that  its  head  comes  where  its  feet  were.  The 
coffin  is  placed  so  that  its  head  is  toward  the  front  door, 
or  the  front  of  the  house.  When  everything  is  ready, 
the  corpse  is  lifted  from  the  coffin  cover  and  placed  in 
the  coffin,  while  the  children  and  grandchildren,  &c., 
break  forth  into  loud  lamentation  and  wailing.  The  eld- 
est son  carries  the  head  of  the  corpse,  and  his  brothers  or 
other  family  relatives  aid  him  in  placing  the  body  in  the 
receptacle  provided.  This  is  made  of  good  wood,  quite 
thick.  In  consequence  of  the  number  of  grave-clothes 
put  upon  the  corpse,  the  coffin  is  much  larger  than  other- 
wise would  be  necessary  to  hold  the  body.  On  the  bot- 
tom of  the  coffin  there  has  been  a  quantity  of  ashes 
spread,  and  over  the  ashes  some  sheets  of  paper  have  been 


334  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

placed.  Sometimes  a  large  number  of  small  bundles  of 
ashes  or  lime  are  placed  in  the  bottom  of  the  coffin  and 
along  the  sides  of  the  corpse  ;  or,  in  place  of  the  ashes, 
some  bundles  of  the  pith  out  of  which  artificial  flowers 
are  made,  commonly  called  rice  paper,  are  used  by  some 
families.  Over  the  corpse  a  piece  of  cloth  is  spread,  and 
the  cover  is  nailed  down. 

During  the  performance  of  all  these  customs,  candles 
and  incense  have  been  kept  burning.  Subsequently  the 
candles  give  place  to  oil  lamps  in  the  practice  of  some 
families,  while  incense  continues  to  be  incessantly  used. 

There  are  many  other  rites  practiced  just  before  and 
after  the  interment,  to  minutely  describe  all  of  which 
would  require  more  space  than  can  be  spared.  Among 
these  ceremonies  is  placing  a  table  before  the  coffin  on 
which  rests  what  is  called  a  "longevity"  picture,  made 
of  rags  in  resemblance  of  a  doll,  but  intended  to  repre- 
sent the  deceased.  On  this  table  is  also  placed  a  bowl  in 
which  incense  is  kept  burning  for  the  period  of  forty-nine 
days.  A  place  is  kept  vacant  at  the  family  dining  table 
for  the  spirit  sometimes  for  three  years,  and  this  place  is 
designated  by  an  inverted  bowl  which  is  supposed  to  con- 
tain food  and  wine.  The  nearest  relative  of  the  deceased 
sleeps  beside  the  coffin  for  severel  nights  as  a  token  of 
devotion ;  this  watcher  is  required  to  keep  incense  con-, 
stantly  burning,  and  should  the  light  expire  for  lack  of 
attention  it  would  be  regarded  as  a  very  bad  omen.  Be- 
fore retiring  at  night  all  the  relatives  of  deceased  enter 
the  room  with  great  solemnity  and  bid  the  corpse  "good 
night."  These  ceremonies,  and  many  others,  are  contin- 
ued for  several  days,  and  after  the  body  is  finally  interred 
they  do  not  cease  sometimes  for  years. 

In  describing  the  above  funeral  rites  I  have  considered 
only  those  performed  in  honor  of  wealthy  persons  whp 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 

have  deceased,  leaving  families  behind  to  prepare  the  cer- 
emonies. In  San  Francisco,  where  there  are  so  few  Chi- 
nese with  families,  such  ceremonies  are  seldom  performed. 
The  more  common  service  observed  in  honor  of  the  dead 
in  that  city  usually  takes  place  at  the  temporary  burying 
ground  near  Lone  Mountain,  which  is  about  two  miles 
west  of  San  Francisco. 

When  a  Chinaman  dies  having  no  next  of  kin,  but  the 
social  standing  to  merit  an  observance  of  the  funeral 
rites,  his  body  is  swathed,  with  much  care,  in  fine  linens, 
and  two  or  more  priests  are  engaged  to  "  give  him  a  good 
send  off;"  candles  are  lighted,  incense  and  cash  (imita- 
tion money)  are  burned  over  the  corpse,  and  after  the 
perf ormance  of  several  ceremonies,  like  those  already  de- 
scribed, the  body  is  conveyed  to  the  burial  ground.  These 
occasions  are  little  less  than  pleasure  excursions,  in  which 
hundreds  of  Chinese  participate.  They  carry,  with  the 
deceased,  large  quantities  of  provisions,  chief  among 
which  are  roasted  pigs  with  flowers  stuck  in  their  backs. 
The  procession  moves  rapidly,  with  a  band  of  musicians 
at  the  head  and  many  hired  mourners,  dressed  in  white 
cassocks  with  caps  of  linen,  following  immediately  be- 
hind. Upon  reaching  the  grave  there  is  more  ceremony 
before  interring  the  body,  after  which  the  rites  become 
more  furious  in  clamorous  demonstration.  A  priest  takes 
his  station  beside  the  grave  and  while  the  musicians 
clang  their  gongs,  blow  trumpets,  etc.,  he  rings  a  bell 
and  sprinkles  holy  water  over  the  consecrated  mound. 
Those  who  are  employed  as  mourners  prostrate  them- 
selves on  the  ground  and  cry  out  discordant  lamentations, 
rehearsing  Chinese  philosophy  and  catechising  the  spirits 
who  iire  supposed  to  surround  them.  During  the  prog- 
ress of  these  ceremonies  other  Chinamen  employ  them- 
selves in  fixing  lighted  tapers  on  the  graves,  burning  in- 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  337 

cense  from  censers,  and  preparing  the  feast  which  soon 
follows.  The  dishes  of  food  that  are  carried  for  the  os- 
tensible purpose  of  feeding  the  dead  are  really  used  as  a 
barbecue,  to  which  those  present  devote  themselves  with 
the  relish  which  a  keen  appetite  incites.  Tapers  are 
left  burning  on  the  graves,  and  after  another  sprinkling 
of  holy  water  the  crowd  disperses  in  a  humor  not  unlike 
that  which  might  be  exhibited  by  a  party  just  leaving  a 
circus. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  BEAUTIES  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO. 

THE  Pacific  coast,  especially  California,  is  essentially 
the  paradise  of  America.  Balmy  Italy  cannot  compare 
with  the  equable,  salubrious  and  delightful  climate  of  this 
pre-eminently  favored  section  of  country,  a  place  where 
neither  heat  oppresses  nor  cold  pinches  those  who  live  in 
its  bright,  delicious  atmosphere.  San  Francisco  is  more 
cosmopolitan  than  New  York  and  more  sensuous  than 
New  Orleans.  The  air  is  a  tonic,  touching  every  cheek 
with  rosiest  health  and  developing  women  into  beings  of 
transporting  beauty.  In  this  particular  the  Golden  Gate 
Metropolis  is  peculiar,  for  more  lovely  females  never 
blessed  God's  favorite  footstool  than  may  be  found  in 
lavish  abundance  coquetting  on  all  her  streets  and  light- 
ing love's  lamp  in  nearly  every  California  household. 

The  city  is  built  on  seven  or  more  mountains,  to  attain 
the  summit  of  which  requires  the  aid  of  cable  railroads — 


338  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

an  invention  which  resulted  from  natural  obstacles  that  every 
San  Franciscan  experienced  many  years  before  these  roads 
were  constructed. 

"  Nob "  or  "  Nabob "  hill  is  the  most  aristocratic  resi- 
dence spot  in  the  city,  and  yet  it  *  located  on  the  crown 
of  a  hill  so  steep  that  a  footman  cannot  ascend  it  without 
frequent  intervals  of  rest;  yet  by  the  use  of  Clay  street 
cable-road  the  trip  to  the  summit  is  one  of  positive  luxury. 


CABLE   RAILROAD   ON   CLAY   STREET,    PASSING  CHINATOWN. 

On  this  hill  will  be  found  residences  of  Ex-Governor 
Leland  Standford,  Charles  Crocker,  and  the  widow  of  Mark 
Hopkins,  every  one  of  which  cost  a  million  or  more  of 
dollars.  In  point  of  real  beauty  these  buildings  far  surpass 
anything  that  may  be  seen  in  New  York  City,  not  excepting 
Mr.  Vanderbilt's  lately  completed  residence. 

Montgomery  street  is  to  San  Francisco  what  Wall 
street  is  to  New  York;  it  is  devoted  chiefly  to  stock- 
broking  offices,  some  of  which  are  exceedingly  fine,  and 
as  the  people  are  consummate  stock  gamblers,  from 


340  MYSTERIES.  AND    MISERIES. 

millionaires  down  to  washerwomen  and  bootblacks,  of 
course  these  institutions  flourish  constantly  with  a  rare 
prosperity.  Kearney  street,  which  runs  parallel  with 
Montgomery,  is  the  retail  and  fashionable  thoroughfare, 
and  promenading  on  it  may  be  found  more  entrancingly 
beautiful  women  to  the  square  foot  than  Paradise  has  to 
the  square  acre. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  San  Francisco 
is  Woodward's  Garden,  a  pleasure  resort  located  in  the 
southwestern  part  of  the  city,  and  filled  with  many  won- 
ders, principal  among  which  is  the  aquarium,  which  I 
have  no  hesitancy  in  pronouncing  the  finest  on  either 
continent .  In  thi  s  garden  m  ny  be  found  n  ot  only  a  very  fine 
zoological  and  aviary  collection,  but  also  a  conservatory 
containing  nearly  every  known  flower  and  plant. 

The  bay  of  San  Francisco  is  a  harbor  capable  of 
anchoring  every  ship  on  the  globe,  and  it  is  universally 
pronounced  superior  to  all  others  in  the  world.  A 
sportsman  from  the  East  crossing  this  harbor  can  scarce 
contain  himself  on  account  of  the  myriads  of  wild  fowl 
that  sit  so  lightly  on  the  dancing  water,  giving  no  heed 
to  passing  boats  ;  ducks,,  geese,  brants,  coots  and  mud- 
hens  are  super-plentiful,  insomuch  that  they  are  scarcely 
considered  game,  especially  as  deer,  turkey  and  prairie- 
hens  are  abundant,  and  grizzly  bears  are  sometimes  too 
easily  found  ruminating  in  the  adjacent  Sierras. 

In  the  last  few  years  San  Francisco  has  been  building 
a  park  projected  by  Mr.  Standford,  I  believe,  which, 
when  completed,  will  be  a  spot  worth  a  thousand  miles' 
travel  to  visit.  The  drive-ways  are  already  finished, 
which  extend  from  opposite  Lone  Mountain  three  miles  to 
the  sea,  and  lead  down  to  a  beach  whose  beauty  can  never 
be  computed  by  pen  or  brush. 

The  Cliff  House  is  built  on  a  rock  that  towers  in  sym- 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


341 


342  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

metrical  grandeur  above  the  restless  waves  that  unceas- 
ingly lave  its  base.  From  the  long  porch  that  traverses 
this  building  may  be  had  the  most  sublime  view  that 
vision  ever  photographed ;  lying  only  a  few  hundred 
yards  from  shore,  and  immediately  opposite  are  the  Seal 
Rocks,  bold,  jutting  upheavals,  with  pinnacles  pointing 
directly  starward,  on  which  a  thousand  seals  hold  their 
eternal  councils.  The  maddest  waves  dash  round  these 
Herculean  monuments,  throwing  up  rainbows  of  flying 
spray,  and  building  crests  upon  which  ride  the  lords  of 
the  rocks.  Hundreds  of  barking  sea-lions  hover  around 
in  the  breakers  or  clamber  up  the  slippery  sides,  while 
some,  apparently  on  adventure  bent,  amble  with  cumbrous 
flippers  to  the  very  apex,  a  hundred  feet  high,  and  from 
this  lofty  and  circumscribed  pinnacle  throw  a  headlong 
leap  into  the  foaming  crests  below.  Sometimes  the  most 
desperate  lights  occur  among  these  fierce  animals,  when 
their  roars  and  terrible  growls  will  not  fail  to  excite  fear 
on  the  part  of  more  timorous  observers. 

But  looking  away  northward  five  miles  a  view  equally 
grand  is  seen,  where  the  tide  swells  in  and  out  at  the  Golden 
Gate,  bearing  scores  of  white  sails,  and  long  trails  of 
smoke  marking  the  tracks  of  steamers .  On  either  side 
of  this  magnificent  entrance  pillars  of  massive  stone 
lift  up  their  crenelated  heads  like  frowning  battlements 
surveying  the  field  of  vision  for  an  enemy.  So  abruptly 
do  they  rise  and  to  such  a  great  height,  that  the  roaring, 
tumbling  billows  dash  like  thunder  at  their  base,  and 
breaking  into  rain,  climb  upward  until  they  fall  back  in  a 
mist  scarce  heavier  than  fog. 

On  the  sea-shore  there  are  quaint  and  curious  shells 
strewn  by  ocean's  hand  amid  the  sand,  and  jelly-fish, 
sea-weed,  peculiar  nuts,  and  a  thousand  things  that  excite 
the  stranger's  interest  w'ill  be  found  profusely  spread  by 


SAN  FKANCISCO.  343 

abandoning  waves.  In  my  visits  to  all  the  famous 
beaches  of  America  I  have  never  found  a  place  so 
charming  as  the  Pacific  shore  six  miles  from  San 
Francisco.  The  day  is  not  far  distant  when  the  summer 
pilgrimage  of  rich  people  to  sea-side  resorts  will  turn 
westward  instead  of  seeking  the  Atlantic  shores,  where 
intense  heat  mingles  with  every  wave  and  the  sand  grows 
parched  with  solar  fires.  This  change  will  occur  when 
overland  railroad  competition  or  sagacious  managers  re- 
duce the  fare  in  summer  time  to  the  reasonable  figures 
charged  for  travel  eastward. 


SALT  LAKE  CITY -POLYGAMY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HISTORY   OF   THE    BOOK   OF   MORMON. 

THERE  is  no  phase  in  human  nature  so  anomalous,  so 
strangely  metaphysical,  as  religious  worship.  If  all 
faith  were  the  product  of  divine  intuition,  there  could  be 
but  one  creed  and  one  code  of  ethics ;  hence  we  must  ar- 
gue from  experience  that  religion  is  a  germ  implanted  by 
nature,  but  that  its  fruits  depend  wholly  upon  the  soil 
and  care  that  nourish  it.  There  is  no  doctrinal  way  of 
measuring  true  righteousness  ;  consequently,  the  proof  of 
heterodoxy  being  established  against  one  church  does  not 
imply  orthodoxy  in  another,  any  more  than  the  prepon- 
derance of  a  church  militant  furnishes  a  conclusive 
reason  that  the  divine  God-head  personally  superintended 
the  compilation  of  creeds  and  catechisms.  A  zealous 
member  of  one  denomination  may  inveigh  against,  or, 
indeed,  logically  show  that  other  sects  are  the  disciples 
of  error,  but  this  does  not  prove  that  his  own  creed  is 
perfect.  The  sole  measure  of  right  and  wrong  is  an  un- 
biased conscience — the  divine  essential,  the  law  of  nature 
. —  that  right  and  righteousness  mean  justice  to  one 
another,  regardless  of  written  prescriptions  or  ecclesias- 
tical codes.  It  is  upon  this  basis  and  construction  of 
religion  that  the  Mormon  Church  must  be  regarded . 
345 


346  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  the  questions  which  the- 
ology interposes  in  considering  the  evils  of  Monnonism , 
so-called,  but  to  present  its  practices  and  results,  that  an 
intelligent  public  .may  form  its  own  conclusions  upon  the 
facts.  It  is  proper,  however,  to  disassociate  Mormonism 
from  Polygamy,  since  the  two  have  no  interests  in  com- 
mon, and  in  truth  are  at  opposition,  as  will  be  seen  in 
subsequent  chapters. 

Joseph  Smith,  the  prophet  and  founder  of  Mormonism, 
descended  from  an  .ignorant  and  despised  family,  who 
were  regarded  by  their  neighbors  as  a  superstitious,  sin- 
gular people.  Although  Vermont  was  Joseph's  birth- 
place— having  been  born  at  Sharon,  Windsor  county, 
December  23,  1805 — he  was  brought  up  in  New  York, 
and  is  generally  conceded  to  be  a  product  of  that  State. 
Wayne  county  was  the  scene  of  his  youth,  where  he  re- 
sided until  twenty  years  of  age,  and  where  he  was  regarded 
as  a  precocious  yet  eccentric  prodigy.  His  earliest  man. 
ifestations  were  divination  and  exorcism,  the  former, 
however,  being  no  more  than  locating  veins  of  water  by 
the  use  of  witch-hazel,  and  the  latter  some  spiritualistic 
mysticism,  something  like  that  exhibited  by  our  modern 
itinerant  mediums. 

When  thirty  years  of  age,  Joseph  removed  to  Ontario 
county,  where  he  followed  the  calling  of  a  well-digger, 
and  it  was  while  engaged  in  this  employment  that  he 
found  what  was  afterward  called  his  "peep-stone." 
This  was  nothing  more  than  a  white,  silicious  pebble,  but 
the  shrewd  theologian  hugged  it  to  his  bosom  and  en- 
dowed it  with  subtle  and  supernatural  properties  by  his 
prolific  imagination.  Though  wholly  uneducated,  Joseph 
was  cunning  and  persuasive  enough  to  excite  wonder  and 
faith  in  the  simple  people  who  lived  about  him  ;  not  to 
such  an  extent,  however,  as  led  them  to  accept  all  his 
assertions  without  some  reservation. 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  347 

According  to  Mormon  history,  directly  after  finding 
the  peep-stone,  Joseph  attended  a  religious  revival,  which 
was  sweeping  over  Ontario  county  like  a  whirlwind,  and, 
influenced  by  the  powerful  appeals  of  an  Evangelist 
minister,  he  became  overwhelmed  by  a  conviction  of 
his  sinfulness.  He  confessed  before  the  world  his  burden 
of  guilt  and  professed  conversion,  together  with  his  sister 
Sophronia,  and  his  brothers,  Hyram  and  Samuel.  After 
the  revival  closed  the  several  denominations  represented 
put  forth  their  efforts  to  secure  the  converts  for  their 
respective  churches,  and  this  act,  it  is  claimed,  led  Joseph 
to  make  inquiry  of  God  that  he  might  know  which  sect 
embraced  the  true  doctrine  of  Christ.  In  seeking  this 
communion  with  the  Lord  he  repaired  to  a  hazel  thicket, 
and  there,  in  all  the  fervency  of  a  troubled  spirit  and 
contrite  heart,  he  prayed  for  divine  direction  that  the 
true  light  might  be  revealed  to  him.  Whilst  engaged  in 
these  supplications  suddenly  the  woods  became  illumin- 
ated as  with  a  light  brighter  than  ever  eye  had  before 
seen,  and  out  of  this  brilliant  landscape  walked  two  angels 
clothed  with  garments  that  shone  like  the  splendor  of 
God's  great  throne.  By  these  bright  beings  Joseph  was 
caught  up  and  transported  through  a  vapor  that  resem- 
bled diamond  dust  to  the  fields  elysian,  which  he  was  per- 
mitted to  see.  Whilst  in  this  beatific  realm  an  ansreltold 

o 

him  that  his  sins  were  all  forgiven,  and  in  answer  to  his 
prayers  he  was  told  that  no  existing  religious  denomination 
was  propagating  the  truth  as  God  had  given  it  to  the 
old  prophets.  He  was  then  carried  back  to  earth, 
where  he  remained  groveling  in  doubt,  and  praying  for 
the  light  of  understanding  until  the  twenty-third  day  of 
September,  1823,  when  another  delegation  from  heaven 
appeared  before  him  and  bore  a  message  from  God  which 
commanded  him  to  restore  the  ancient  priesthood  by 


348  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

establishing  a  new  church,  and  to  forthwith  prepare 
himself  for  the  labor.  Still  he  was  left  uninstructed, 
and  still  he  prayed  for  divine  guidance ;  then  the  Lord 
visited  him  in  the  guise  of  a  cherub  and  imparted  the 
knowledge  which  prepared  him  for  the  labor  of  founding 
Mornionism,  while  at  the  same  time  he  was  endowed 
with  the  gift  of  prophecy.  He  was  also  told  that  certain 
plates  of  gold,  whereon  was  written  the  history  of  America 
before  Christ,  were  lying  buried  in  the  hill  Cumorah. 

On  the  22d  day  of  September,  1826,  reckoning  three 
years  from  the  date  of  the  revelation,  Joseph  was  com- 
manded to  repair  unto  the  hill  Cumorah,  where  he  would 
meet  an  angel  who  would  instruct  him  what  to  do.  Obey- 
ing the  voice  which  spoke  to  him  as  a  spirit,  he  went  to 
Cumorah  and  there  saw  an  angel  clothed  in  a  raiment 
that  shone  with  dazzling  splendor,  but,  sustained  by  the 
revelation  he  had  received,  Joseph  approached  the  angel, 
who  deposited  in  his  hands  a  volume  composed  of  gold 
leaves,  bound  together  by  rings,  on  which  there  were  in- 
scriptions which  he  could  not  comprehend.  The  leaves 
were  very  thin,  but  so  numerous  that  they  made  a  book 
full  six  inches  in  thickness  ;  they  had  been  deposited  in  a 
box  along  with  two  stones  which  were  as  transparent  as 
crystal,  and  this  receptacle  bore  the  seal  of  God ;  the 
stones  were  pronounced  by  the  angel  to  be  Urim  and 
Thuminim,  used  by  seers  in  ancient  times  to  forecast  the 
future  and  to  see  all  things. 

Joseph  does  not  tell  what  he  did  with  the  plates  after 
accepting  them  from  the  angel,  but  admits  that  he  told 
his  neighbors  of  all  that  had  befallen  him,  adding  that  his 
story  was  received  with  scorn  and  incredulity,  and  that 
many  tried  to  steal  the  plates.  After  keeping  the  history 
thus  strangely  written,  for  some  time,  he  showed  the  plates 
to  three  persons,  Oliver  Cowdery,  David  Whitmer  and 


SALT  LAKE  CITY.  349 

Martin  Harris,  by  the  sanction  of  an  angel,  who  it  seems 
was  the  spiritual  custodian  of  the  sacred  writings.  These 
three  men  have  subscribed  to  an  oath  which  will  be  found 
in  all  Mormon  bibles,  and  is  as  follows : 

Be  it  known  unto  all  nations,  kindreds,  tongues,  and  people  unto 
whom  this  work  shall  come,  that  we,  through  the  grace  of  God 
the  Father,  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  have  seen  the  plates  which 
contain  this  record,  which  is  a  record  of  the  people  of  Nephi, 
and  also  of  the  Lamanites,  their  brethren,  and  also  of  the  people 
of  Jared,  who  came  from  the  tower  of  which  hath  been  spoken ; 
and  we  also  know  that  they  have  been  translated  by  the  gift 
and  power  of  God,  for  his  voice  hath  declared  it  unto  us ;  where- 
fore we  know  of  a  surety  that  the  work  is  true.  And  we  also 
testify  that  we  have  seen  the  engravings  which  are  upon  the 
plates ;  and  they  have  been  shown  unto  us  by  the  power  of  God, 
and  not  of  man.  And  we  declare  with  words  of  soberness,  that 
an  angel  of  God  came  down  from  heaven,  and  he  brought  and 
laid  before  our  eyes,  that  we  beheld  and  saw  the  plates,  and  the 
engravings  thereon  ;  and  we  know  that  it  is  by  the  grace  of  God 
the  Father,  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  beheld  and  bear 
record  that  these  things  are  true  ;  and  it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes, 
nevertheless  the  voice  of  the  Lord  commanded  us  that  we  should 
bear  record  of  it ;  wherefore,  to  be  obedient  unto  the  command- 
ments of  God,  we  bear  testimony  of  these  things.  And  we  know 
that  if  we  are  faichful  in  Christ,  we  shall  rid  our  garments  of  the 
blood  of  all  men,  and  be  found  spotless  before  the  judgment-seat 
of  Christ,  and  shall  dwell  with  him  eternally  in  the  heavens.  And 
the  honor  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy 
Ghost,  which  is  one  God.  Amen. 

OLIVER  COWDERY, 
DAVID  WHITMER, 
MARTIN  HARRIS. 

Shortly  after  this  first  affidavit  the  plates  were  shown 
to  eight  other  farmers  of  the  neighborhood,  who  bore  tes- 
timony as  follows : 

Be  it  known  unto  all  nations,  kindreds,  tongues,  and  people 
unto  whom  this  work  shall  come,  that  Joseph  Smith,  Jun.,  the 
translator  of  this  work,  has  shown  unto  us  the  plates  of  which 
hath  been  spoken,  which  have  the  appearance  of  gold;  and  as 
many  of  the  leaves  as  the  said  Smith  has  translated,  we  did  han- 
dle with  our  hands ;  and  we  also  saw  the  engravings  thereon,  all 
of  which  has  the  appearance  of  ancient  work,  and  of  curious 


350  MYSTERIKS    AND    MISERIES. 

workmanship.  And  this  we  bear  record  with  words  of  soberness, 
that  the  said  Smith  has  shown  unto  us,  for  we  have  seen  and 
hefted,  and  know  of  a  surety  that  the  said  Smith  has  got  the 
plates  of  which  we  have  spoken.  And  we  give  our  names  unto 
the  world  to  witness  unto  the  world  that  which  we  have  seen ; 
and  we  lie  not,  God  bearing  witness  of  it. 

CHRISTIAN  WHITMER,  HIRAM  PAGE, 

JACOB  WHITMER,  JOSEPH  SMITH,  Sen. 

PETER  WHITMKR,  Tun.  HYRUM  SMITH, 

JOHN  WHITMER,  SAMUEL  H.  SMITH. 

The  first  person  who  testified  to  having  seen  the  plates, 
Oliver  Covvdeiy,  was  a  rambling  country  school-teacher, 
who  had  a  fair  education  and  was  a  splendid  scribe. 
This  man  was  engaged  by  Smith  to  transcribe  the  records 
after  his  translation,  which  the  prophet  performed  by 
placing  the  two  stones  in  his  hat  and  looking  upon  them 
while  he  held  one  of  the  plates  in  his  hand. 

The  history  purported  to  have  been  written  in  the 
ancient  language  of  the  Egyptian  Jews,  by  the  prophet 
Mormon,  and  in  characters  which  no  living  nmu  could 
read  without  the  Urim  and  Thummim.  Covvdery  wrote 
down  every  word  as  it  was  translated  by  Smith,  and  so 
great  was  their  labor  that  it  required  more  th-in  two 
years  to  complete  the  transcription.  Cowdery  relates, 
according  to  Mormon  tradition,  that  on  one  occasion  dur- 
ing the  time  that  he  and  Smith  were  writing  the  Book  of 
Mormon,  they  went  out  for  a  walk  along  the  river  bank, 
merely  for  recreation,  as  the  labor  of  translating  and 
writing  was  very  exhausting.  They  came  to  a  place 
where  there  were  a  great  many  stones,  some  of  which 
they  gathered  up  and  threw  into  the  stream  in  a  contest 
to  see  which  was  the  better  thrower.  It  so  happened 
that  Cowdery  found  a  stone  among  those  he  thus  gath- 
ered that  exactly  resembled  the  Urim  and  Thummim. 
In  order  to  satisfy  himself  whether  Smith  was  practicing 
any  deception,  he  concealed  the  stone  in  his  pocket  until 


SALT  LAKE  CITY.  351 

they  returned  to  their  cabin  to  resume  the  translation, 
when  he  replaced  Urim  with  this  common  stone  without 
acquainting  Smith  of  the  fact.  He  had  now  a  perfect 
opportunity  for  testing  the  Prophet's  supernatural  vision, 
but  Cowdery  related  that  Smith  was  suddenly  confounded, 
declaring  he  could  see  nothing,  and  at  once  fell  to  pray- 
ing for  divine  direction  again.  The  trick  was  then  ex- 
plained, Urim  replaced,  and  the  translation  proceeded  as 
before.  The  original  manuscript  is  still  in  existence,  and 
is  in  the  keeping  of  Christian  Whitmer,  who  is  now  a 
resident  of  Richmond,  Missouri,  and,  strange  enough,  is 
the  only  one  living  of  the  eleven  witnesses.  He  attaches 
supernatural  power  to  this  writing  and  is  so  careful  of  it 
that  he  had  a  strong  box  made  and  bound  with  iron  espe- 
cially for  its  keeping.  Mr.  Whitmer  relates,  that  about 
the  year  1873  his  house  was  struck  by  a  cyclone  and  set 
on  fire,  and  that  the  building  was  totally  destroyed  ex- 
cepting the  room  in  which  the  sacred  manuscript  is  kept. 

Joseph.  Smith  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  the  book 
printed,  because  no  one  having  the  necessary  means  could 
be  made  to  believe  in  its  sacredness,  until  in  1830,  when 
Martin  Harris,  an  illiterate,  superstitious  old  man,  was 
induced  to  mortgage  his  farm  to  secure  money  for  the 
publication  in  book  form.  It  was  printed  by  Pomeroy 
Tucker,  the  proprietor  of  an  Ontario  county  paper,  the 
first  edition  being  three  thousand  ;  it  was  rapidly  circu- 
lated and  attracted  great  attention. 

A  synopsis  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  as  prepared  by  a 
gentleman  who  has  made  the  work  a  study,  is  as  follows  : 

It  consists  of  a  number  of  books,  named  after  their 
reputed  authors — Book  of  Nephi,  Book  of  Alma,  Esther, 
Jared,  etc.  They  contain  the  following  history  : 

In  the  reign  of  Zedekiah,  six  hundred  years  before 
Christ,  a  Jewish  family,  with  a  few  friends  and  retainers, 


352  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

left  Jerusalem,  being  warned  of  God  that  a  great  de- 
struction and  captivity  were  at  hand,  and  journeyed  east- 
ward in  search  of  a  "land  of  promise."  After  many 
wanderings,  and  the  death  of  the  Patriarch,  they  reached 
the  sea,  when  Nephi,  who  had  succeeded  his  father  in  the 
Patriarchate  and  Priesthood,  was  directed  by  the  Lord  to 
build  a  boat;  and,  furnished  with  a  "double  ball  and 
spindle,"  which  served  the  exact  purpose  of  the  modern 
mariner's  compass,  they  embarked  and  in  due  time 
reached  the  continent  of  America.  Subsequent  revela- 
tions have  decided  that  they  landed  in  Central  America. 
There  they  increased  rapidly,  but  a  great  schism  arose  ; 
and  one  Laman,  with  his  followers,  refused  to  obey  the 
true  priesthood,  for  which  they  were  cut  off,  cursed,  and 
condemned  "  to  be  a  brutish  and  a  savage  people,  having 
dark  skins,  compelled  to  dig  in  the  ground  for  roots,  and 
hunt  their  meat  in  the  forests  like  beasts  of  prey."  But 
it  was  foretold  that  a  remnant  of  them  should,  in  time, 
"  have  the  curse  removed,  and  become  a  fair  and  delight- 
some people,"  who  should  "  blossom  as  the  rose,  under 
the  teachings  of  the  Latter-day  Saints."  These  were  the 
Lamanites,  the  present  Indians,  while  the  Christian  party 
were  known  as  Nephites.  The  latter  spread  over  all  of 
North  and  South  America,  became  rich  and  powerful, 
and  built  the  cities  of  Zarahemla,  Jacobbugath,  Manti, 
Gidgiddoni,  and  scores  of  others,  thus  accounting  for  the 
numerous  ruins  found  on  this  continent.  They  were 
ruled  over  successively  by  Nephi  the  First,  Second  and 
Third,  by  Noah,  Alma,  Kish,  Coriantumnr,  and  numerous 
other  kings,  and  were  successively  instructed  by  a  number 
of  prophets.  But  the  Lamanites  increased  likewise,  and 
carried  on  almost  perpetual  war  with  the  Nephites  till  a 
great  part  of  the  land  was  desolate.  According  to  this 
history  there  have  been  no  people  of  the  Old  World  SQ 


SALT  LAKE  CITY.  353 

warlike  and  blood-thirsty  as  these,  and  battles  in  which 
from  twenty  to  fifty  thousand  were  slain  were  of  common 
occurrence.  The  Nephites  were  troubled,  too,  by  "  false 
doctrine,  heresy  and  schism;"  the  true  priesthood  was 
reviled ;  one  man  arose  and  preached  Universalism, 
"that  God  would  save  all  mankind  at  the  last  day," 
and  others  followed  strange  gods.  An  immense  mass  of 
the  nation  turned  back  and  joined  the  Lamanites,  and  a 
band  of  robbers,  under  one  Gadianton,  desolated  a  large 
part  of  the  land.  At  length  prophets  appeared  and  an- 
nounced the  coming  of  Christ,  who,  after  He  was  crucified 
at  Jerusalem,  preached  the  gospel  in  America.  At  the 
time  of  His  death  this  country  also  was  shrouded  in 
darkness  ;  a  mighty  earthquake  threw  down  the  wicked  city 
of  Jacobbugath,  opened  great  chasms  and  basins  throughout 
the  land,  and  the  whole  face  of  the  country  was  changed. 
The  Nephites  accepted  Christ  at  once,  but  in  a  few  gen- 
erations fell  again  into  apostasy,  and  the  Lord  delivered 
them  into  the  hand  of  their  enemies.  The  mighty  chief- 
tain Omandagus,  whose  rule  was  from  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains to  the  Mississippi,  fought  against  the  Nephites,  and 
after  him  many  others.  Little  by  little  the  Nephites 
were  driven  eastward,  but  made  a  stand  near  the  shores 
of  Lake  Erie,  and  fought  "  till  the  whole  land  was  cover- 
ed with  dead  bodies."  They  made  their  final  stand  about 
430,  A.  D.,  at  the  hill  Cumorah,  in  Ontario  county,  New 
York,  where  the  Lamanites  came  against  them,  and  the 
battle  raged  till  two  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  Nephites 
were  slain ;  the  little  remnant  was  captured,  and  only 
Mormon  and  his  son  Moroni  escaped. 

The  various  kings  and  priests  had  kept  a  record  of 

their  history,  which  Mormon  now  collected  in  one  volume, 

added  a  book  of  his  own,  and  gave  them  to  his  son.    The 

latter  finished  the  record,  and  buried  the  whole  in  the 

23 


354  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

hill  Cumorah,  being  assured  of  God  that  in  fourteen  cen- 
turies a  great  prophet  should  restore  them  to  man.  Such 
is  the  book,  and  Joseph's  account  of  it.  On  such  testi- 
mony alone  there  is  sufficient  cause  to  reject  it,  the  book 
itself  containing  abundant  internal  evidence  of  fraud. 


CHAPTER 


AUTHENTICITY  OF  SMITH'S  WORKS SENSUAL  MOTIVES . 


Ix  the  preceding  chapter  I  have  rehearsed  the  story, 
or  tradition,  of  Joseph  Smith's  inspiration,  as  told  by 
Mormons,  but  well  established  facts,  easily  accessible, 
prove  conclusively  that  this  ex  parte  history  is  a  romance 
without  any  semblance  to  truth.  Since  Mormonism  has 
become  an  established  church  doctrine,  with  a  recognized 
power,  and  no  inconsiderable  membership,  it  is  proper 
that  the  following  well  authenticated  facts  appertaining 
to  the  authorship  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  be  herein  re- 
lated : 

About  the  year  1820,  Josiah  Spaulding,  a  learned  law 
advocate,  was  a  resident  of  Ohio,  where  he  had  a  lucra- 
tive practice,  and  was  regarded  with  high  favor  by  all 
who  knew  him.  He  had  an  uncle,  named  Solomon  Spaul- 
ding, who  resided  in  one  of  the  eastern  States,  but  his 
health  had  failed  him,  and,  hoping  to  find  some  benefit 
by  a  change, of  climate,  came  to  Ohio,  where  for  several 
years  he  made  his  home  with  his  nephew.  Mr.  Spaul- 
ding's  ainiction  was  a  chronic  ailment  which  confined 
him  closely  indoors,  and  to  relieve  the  tedium  of  his 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  355 

lonely  existence  he  amused  himself  by  writing  a  story  in 
imitation  of  the  style  and  language  used  in  the  Bible. 
He  was  doubtless  influenced  to  write  such  an  historical 
novel  by  the  religious  belief  he  entertained,  for  he  was 
tin  idealist  and  believed  in  natural  religion,  as  also  in  the 
depravity  of  man  through  the  fall  of  Adam.  He  op- 
posed a  paid  ministry  and  maintained  that  true  disciples 
of  God  would  be  sustained  by  divine  favor,  like  that  re- 
ceived by  Elijah,  who  was  fed  in  the  wilderness  by  ravens. 
This  sentiment  in  its  completeness  he  expressed  in  the 
following  language,  which  will  still  be  found  in  the  "  Book 
of  Mormon,"  chapter  8,  verses  23  to  41  : 

Yea,  behold  I  say  unto  you,  that  those  saints  who  have  gone 
before  me,  who  have  possessed  this  land,  shall  cry ;  yea,  even 
from  the  dust  will  they  cry  unto  the  Lord ;  and  as  the  Lord  liv- 
eth,  he  will  remember  the  covenant  which  he  hath  made  with 
them. 

And  he  knoweth  their  prayers,  that  they  were  in  behalf  of 
their  brethren.  And  he  knoweth  their  faith  ;  for  in  his  name  could 
they  remove  mountains ;  and  in  his  name  they  could  cause  the 
earth  to  quake  ;  and  by  the  power  of  his  word  did  they  cause 
prisons  to  tumble  to  the  earth  ;  yea,  even  the  fiery  furnace  could 
not  harm  them  ;  neither  wild  beasts  nor  poisonous  serpents  be- 
cause of  the  power  of  his  word. 

#  #  #  *  *  * 

And  it  shall  come  in  a  day  when  the  blood  of  saints  shall  cry 
unto  the  Lord,  because  of  secret  combinations  and  the  works  of 
darkness. 

Yea,  it  shall  come  in  a  day  when  the  power  of  God  shall  be 
denied,  and  churches  become  defiled,  and  shall  be  lifted  up  in  the 
pride  of  their  hearts ;  yea,  even  in  a  day  when  leaders  of  churches 
and  teachers,  in  the  pride  of  their  hearts,  even  to  the  envying  of 
them  who  belong  to  their  churches. 

Then  follow  several  verses  prophesying  wars,  and  all 
secret  abominations  that  shall  result  from  this  money 
gathering  from  the  word  of  God. 

Yea,  it  shall  come  in  a  day  when  there  shall  be  churches  built 
up  that  shall  say,  come  unto  me  and  for  your  money  you  shall  be 
forgiven  of  your  sins. 


356  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

Oh,  ye  wicked  and  perverse,  and  stiff-necked  people,  why 
have  ye  built  up  churches  to  yourselves  to  get  gain  ?  Why  have  ye 
transfigured  the  holy  word  of  God,  that  ye  might  bring  damnation 
upon  your  souls  ?  Behold,  look  ye  unto  the  revelations  of  God. 

Behold,  I  speak  unto  you  as  if  ye  were  present,  and  yet  ye 
are  not.  But  behold,  Jesus  Christ  hath  shown  you  unto  me,  and 
I  know  your  doing. 

And  I  know  that  ye  do  walk  in  the  pride  of  your  hearts  ;  and 
there  are  none,  save  a  few  only,  who  do  not  lift  themselves  up  in 
the  pride  of  their  hearts  unto  the  wearing  of  fine  apparel,  unto 
envying,  and  strifes,  and  malice,  and  persecution,  and  all  manner 
of  iniquities ;  and  your  churches,  yea,  even  every  one,  have  be- 
come polluted. 

For,  behold,  ye  do  love  money,  and  your  substances,  and 
your  fine  apparel,  and  the  adorning  of  your  churches  more  than 
ye  love  the  poor  and  needy. 

0  ye  pollutions,  ye  hypocrites,  ye  teachers,  who  sell  yourselves 
for  that  which  will  canker,  why  have  ye  polluted  the  holy  church 

of  God? 

*  *  *  *  *  *  # 

Why  do  ye  adorn  yourselves  with  that  which  hath  no  life, 
and  yet  suffer  the  hungry,  and  the  needy,  and  the  naked  and  sick, 
and  the  afflicted,  to  pass  by  you  and  notice  them  not  ? 

Yea,  why  do  you  build  up  your  secret  abominations  to  get 
gain,  and  cause  that  widows  should  mourn  before  the  Lord,  and 

also  orphans  to  mourn  before  the  Lord  ? 

******* 

Behold,  the  sword  of  vengeance  hangeth  over  you,  etc. 

1  have  thus  quoted  at  some  length  from  a  single  chap- 
ter that  it  might  serve  as  an  evidence  of  Mr.  Spaulding's 
belief,  but  there  are  many  other  chapters  in  which  he 
pronounces  his  convictions  that  paid  ministers  and  fine 
churches  are  an  abomination  to  the  Lord. 

The  twenty-ninth  verse  of  the  twenty-sixth  chapter  of 
Nephi  reads  as  follows  : 

He  commandeth  that  there  shall  be  no  priest-crafts ;  for, 
behold,  priest-crafts  are  they  that  preach  and  set  themselves  up  for 
a  light  unto  the  world,  that  they  may  get  gain  and  praise  of  the 
world;  but  they  seek  not  the  welfare  of  Zion. 

This  verse  follows  directly  after  a  declaration  that 
milk  and  honey  flow  freely  without  price  before  all  true 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  357 

disciples,  so  that  it  is  susceptible  of  but  one  construction. 
It  may  well  be  argued,  in  view  of  this  prejudice  which 
Mr.  Spaulding  exhibits,  that  he  wrote  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon, and  the  Old  Testament  which  prefaces  the  same  like 
an  ancient  law,  not  alone  to  give  himself  employment, 
but  also  as  an  expression  of  religious  conviction  about 
which  he  shows  great  concern. 

Mr.  Spaulding,  the  writer,  died  in  1823,  and  his  widow 
moved  to  Ontario  county,  New  York,  taking  the  manu- 
script of  this  legendary  romance  with  her.  She  lived  be- 
side a  man  named  Stroude,  for  whom  Joe  Smith  dug  a 
well,  and  while  he  was  thus  engaged  Mrs.  Spaulding 
claims  that  the  manuscript  was  stolen,  a  thing  easy  to  do, 
as  she  took  no  further  care  of  the  manuscript  than  to 
keep  it  on  an  exposed  shelf,  and  as  its  contents  had  been 
made  known  to  the  neighbors,  it  is  reasonably  supposed 
that  Smith  acquired  possession  of  it  through  means  only 
known  to  himself. 

Josiah  Spaulding,  the  nephew  at  whose  house  in  Ohio 
Solomon  Spaulding  died,  removed  to  St.  Louis  in  1835, 
and  remained  there  until  his  death,  which  occurred  in 
1852.  As  a  lawyer  he  had  but  few  peers,  and  his  up- 
rightness in  all  the  walks  of  life  was  such  that  he  received 
a  meed  of  praise  after  death  from  his  professional  breth- 
ren, as  well  also  from  the  whole  body  of  St.  Louis  citi- 
zens, greater  than  any  other  man  ever  buried  in  Missouri 
soil.  The  testimony  of  one  so  honored  for  his  inflexible 
rectitude  is  particularly  valuable  when  it  may  bejused  to 
decide  the  authorship  of  a  book  claiming  to  be  the  pro- 
duct of  divine  inspiration.  He  stated  positively  that  his 
uncle,  Solomon,  wrote  the  Mormon  bible,  and  further 
declared  that  it  was  written  under  the  circumstances  and 
influences  already  detailed  ;  that  in  a  careful  reading  of 
the  published  work  he  found  that  it  was  identical  with  the 


358  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

manuscript  prepared  by  his  uncle,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  minor  interpolations  evidently  injected  by  Smith  or 
Cowdery  to  subserve  personal  ends. 

If  it  were  necessary  to  the  more  complete  establish- 
ment of  the  fact  that  the  Mormon  bible  never  emanated 
from  any  but  a  common  source,  and  one  entirely  foreign 
to  Joe  Smith  or  God  Almighty,  the  further  truth  may  be 
mentioned  that  its  teachings  are  in  many  instances  direct 
injunctions  against  practices  which  Joe  Smith  followed 
and  commended,  and  that  its  phraseology  is  absolutely 
execrable.  Solomon  Spaulding  was  an  unlettered  man, 
and  this  fact  is  clearly  evidenced  by  the  writings  in  the 
Mormon  bible.  All  that  it  contains,  exhibiting  any  pure 
sentiment  or  wholesome  precept,  is  taken,  by  flagrant 
plagiarism,  from  the  sacred  records,  and  what  appears  as 
original  is  enough  to  shame  the  intelligence  of  an  ordi- 
nary school-boy,  excepting  that  there  is  some  proof  of  the 
author  having  been  a  student  of  history.  In  all  these 
particulars  the  book  shows  that  it  emanated  either  from 
Solomon  Spaulding  or  one  of  like  acquirements. 

There  are  many  other  evidences  obtainable  serving  to 
clearly  and  conclusively  prove  that  Joseph  Smith  stole 
the  manuscript  which  Solomon  Spaulding  prepared,  and 
that  by  inherent  cunning  he  impressed  upon  a  few  densely 
ignorant  people  the  strange  delusion  that  he  was  a  second 
Christ,  with  a  mission  before  him  of  equal  importance. 

On  the  6th  of  April,  1830,  the  Mormon  church  was 
organized  at  Manchester,  New  York,  by  the  baptism  of 
six  members,  viz.  :  Joseph  Smith  Senior  and  Junior, 
Hyrum  Smith,  Samuel  Smith,  Oliver  Cowdery,  and  Joseph 
Knight;  Joe  Smith,  Jr.,  and  Cowdery  were  invested  with 
the  Aaronic  Priesthood  and  took  upon  themselves  the 
office  of  high  priests,  who  should  devise  and  control  the 
church  government. 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  359 

From  this  date  there  was  decided  progress  made  in 
propagating  the  new  doctrine,  but  Joe  Smith  continued 
his  evil  ways  of  covetousness  and  unlawful  acquisitions 
until  he  was  arrested  for  theft.  But  still  the  church 
grew,  and  in  the  August  following  Parley  P.  Pratt,  a 
Campbellite  preacher,  and  Sidney  Rigdon,  a  school- 
teacher, became  converted  and  put  on  the  apostolic  har- 
ness for  earnest  work.  Soon  thereafter  Orson  Pratt 
embraced  the  new  doctrine,  and  his  accession  did  more  to 
push  forward  the  proselyting  than  the  active  labor  of  any 
other  person  that  ever  joined  that  church.  Pratt  was  a 
man  of  great  learning,  and  up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
which  occurred  in  November,  1881,  at  Salt  Lake,  he  exer- 
cised a  ruling  influence  over  all  the  members,  and  was 
looked  up  to  as  the  champion  of  Mormonism. 

In  the  early  part  of  1831,  Kirtland,  Ohio,  was  chosen 
as  the  seat  of  the  church,  a  place  where  Sidney  Rigdon 
had  formerly  lived  and  where  he  had  already  converted 
about  one  hundred  of  the  simple-minded  people  of  that 
neighborhood.  This  place,  very  soon  afterward,  became 
a  very  plague-spot  of  licentiousness.  The  church  grew 
rapidly  and  its  membership  included  more  women  than 
men.  It  was  now  that  the  tree  began  to  bear  fruit. 
Joe  Smith  prescribed  an  "incarnated  catechism,"  which 
is  almost  too  shocking  to  describe,  and  yet  he  claimed  it 
was  a  revelation  from  God.  This  form  of  inquiry  into 
the  spiritual  proficiency  of  communicants  and  applicants 
consisted  of  a  service  that  photographs  the  aims  and 
ambitions  of  the  church  founders,  and  if  there  were  no 
other  unholy  practices  and  crimes  to  condemn  Mormonism 
of  to-day,  that  alone  would  be  sufficient  to  reveal  the 
monumental  iniquity  that  inspired  Joe  Smith  to  found  his 
sensual  religion. 

A  special  building  was  erected  at  Kirtland,  which  con- 


360  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

tained  three  rooms,  two  small  and  one  large,  that  sub- 
served a  purpose  so  lascivious  as  to  almost  defy  belief. 
At  given  times  the  members,  both  women  and  men,  re- 
paired to  this  "  tabernacle  of  faith,"  always  after  night- 
fall. The  women  went  directly  to  one  of  the  small 
rooms,  where  they  divested  themselves  of  all  their  cloth- 
ing and  stood  in  a  state  of  perfect  nudity  until  they  were 
commanded  to  appear  in  the  large  room.  The  men  like- 
wise repaired  to  the  other  small  room,  where  they  also 
undressed  and  in  a  state  of  utter  nakedness  awaited  their 
summons.  The  large  room  was  darkened  so  that  not  an 
object  inside  could  be  descried  even  in  outline,  and  when 
all  were  ready,  one  of  the  high  priests  would  order  the 
unadorned  members  to  enter.  As  they  filed  into  this  in- 
tensely dark  room  from  opposite  directions,  each  met  a 
partner  until  the  entire  company  was  matched,  whereupon 
they  would  fall  to  wrestling  with  one  another  by  couples, 
and  assuming  every  conceivable  attitude  calculated  to  in- 
spire the  highest  sexual  passions  ;  but  the  object  of  this 
lascivious  ceremony  was  to  test  each  member's  power  of 
resisting  temptation.  Joe  Smith  defended  the  heathen- 
ish practice  by  declaring  that  it  taught  communicants  how 
to  subordinate  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  to  spiritual  grace  and 
the  fullness  of  righteousness.  It  is  perhaps  unnecessary 
to  mention  the  fact  that  "no  outsiders  were  admitted." 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  361 


CHAPTER  III. 

EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

THE  methods  employed  to  make  converts,  while  the 
church  was  located  in  Ohio,  were  variable  but  always 
ridiculous.  Rigdon  was  the  first  to  preach  * '  the  beginning 
of  the  end,"  in  which  he  set  forth  the  early  destruction 
of  the  world,  and  declared  that  salvation  could  come  only 
through  an  acceptance  of  Mormonism.  He  was  an  ex- 
cellent exhorter,  and  being  possessed  of  a  vivid  imagina- 
tion he  drew  pictures  of  hell  and  heaven  with  such  chro- 
matic coloring  that  his  hearers  became  fairly  frenzied 
through  religious  excitement. 

Orson  Pratt,  not  to  be  outdone  by  his  colleague,  hit 
upon  another  plan  for  gaining  converts,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  give  himself  an  inspirational  boost  in  the  estima- 
tion of  his  simple  congregation.  Coming  into  church  one 
evening  at  "early  candle-light,"  he  appeared  as  one 
sorely  troubled  in  spirit.  Upon  taking  position  in  the 
rear  of  the  church,  (which  was  a  log  building  with  a 
window  on  each  side,)  as  if  to  address  his  audience,  he 
said  :  "Brethren  and  sisters,  I  have  a  very  strange  feel- 
ing this  evening,  as  if  the  Holy  Ghost  were  about  to 
manifest  unto  me  for  some  wise  purpose."  After  paus- 
ing awhile  he  resumed  :  "  I  am  impressed  by  God  to  de- 
clare that  I  will  not  preach  again  to  you  until  GABRIEL 
SHALL  BLOW  HIS  HORN  ! ' '  These  last  words  were  spoken 
in  a  loud  voice,  and  forthwith  the  diaphanous  toot  of  a 
dinner-horn  broke  upon  the  air  with  appalling  suddenness 
and  clamor.  Pratt  jumped  off  his  feet  as  though  the 
devil  had  prodded  his  posterior,  and  then  he  proclaimed 


362  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

aloud:  "The  Lord  has  indeed  manifested  himself;  the 
horn  of  Gabriel  has  awakened  me  a-s  one  from  the  dead, 
and  since  this  miracle  has  been  performed  to  convince 
our  naturally  skeptical  hearts,  let  us  forever  hereafter 
feel  certain  that  God's  favors  are  upon  the  Mormon 
church.  I  will  now  address  you  as  the  spirit  inspires 
me." 

Every  evening  for  a  week  this  horn  of  Gabriel  was 
blown  at  the  opening  of  church  services,  and  the  congre- 
gations went  through  paroxysms  of  overwhelming  excite- 
ment, screaming,  shouting,  tumbling  over  benches,  hug- 
ging each  other,  and  apotheosizing  Mormonism.  At 
length,  however,  a  faithless  and  precocious  mischief- 
maker,  not  fully  satisfied  that  Gabriel  was  "  working  the 
miracle  racket,"  concluded  to  make  an  examination. 
He  accordingly  posted  himself  behind  a  wood-pile  before 
"tooting"  time,  and  awaited  developments.  Presently 
he  saw  through  the  darkness  a  body  approaching,  that 
hid  itself  in  another  part  of  the  same  wood-pile.  A  few 
minutes  later,  and  on  time  to  the  second,  he  heard  that 
same  trumpet  blast — strong,  resonant  and  ear-splitting. 
He  jumped  from  his  covert  and  sprang  suddenly  upon 
Gabriel  and  his  instrument,  without  regarding  the  dignity 
or  supernaturalness  of  a  holy  messenger.  Gabriel  so  far 
forgot  his  celestial  attributes  and  potentiality  as  to  cry 
out  like  a  mortal : 

' '  Let  go  of  my  horn  ! ' ' 

The  trick  even  lacked  cleverness,  and  of  course  Gabriel 
proved  to  be  a  young  man  engaged  by  Pratt  to  do  the 
blowing.  But  this  exposure  had  no  effect  whatever  on 
the  credulous  people  who  had  embraced  the  faith. 
Nothing  on  earth,  or  in  heaven,  could  shake  their  belief 
in  Pratt  and  Gabriel,  so  that  they  still  believed  implicitly 
every  word  and  revelation  that  fell  from  the  inspired  old 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  363 

humbug,  and  sustained  him  by  liberal  gifts  of  property. 

But  Joe  Smith,  who  had  been  set  in  the  background  by 
Rigdon  and  Pratt,  looked  with  disfavor  on  the  Gabriel's 
horn  scheme,  and  thought  evil  results  would  attend  the 
exposure  ;  so,  to  avoid  this,  he  gave  his  followers  another 
revelation  out  of  the  large  stock  he  kept  constantly  on 
hand  for  emergencies.  This  was  given  in  the  form  of  a 
command  from  God  that  the  church  should  be  trans- 
planted to  Jackson  county,  Missouri,  a  spot  which  Smith 
avowed  was  originally  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  that  Zion 
should  be  set  up  there,  against  which  time,  blood  nor 
money  should  ever  prevail.  Accordingly  several  of  the 
church  elders  set  out  overland,  in  the  latter  part  of  July, 
1831,  and  pitched  their  tents  twelve  miles  from  where  In- 
dependence now  stands,  some  time  in  August  following. 
A  site  was  chosen  for  the  Great  Temple,  the  erection  of 
which  was  begun  soon  after,  when  another  large  party  of 
Mormons  came  on  from  Kirtland  to  swell  the  colony. 

Joe  Smith  soon  afterward  returned  to  Ohio  and  estab- 
lished a  banking-house,  of  which  he  was  chosen  president, 
and  as  it  derived  a  large  patronage  from  the  Mormons,  the 
business  was  a  success.  But  Smith  left  the  bank  after 
five  months'  management  and  returned  to  the  spiritual 
harvest.  At  the  same  time  he  also  sent  out  apostles  in 
all  directions  in  imitation  of  Christ's  instructions. 

In  the  spring  of  1832  Brigham  Young  was  converted, 
together  with  his  four  brothers  and  six  sisters,  under  the 
ministrations  of  Samuel  Smith,  and  forthwith  Brigham 
became  not  only  a  devout  follower,  but  also  a  powerful 
preacher  in  expounding  the  doctrines  of  Mormonism. 

In  March,  1832,  Joe  Smith  and  Sidney  Rigdon,  while 
itinerating  on  missionary  labor,  were  seized  by  an  enraged 
mob  which  charged  them  with  communism,  forgery  and 
thievery,  and  they  were  publicly  tarred  and  feathered. 


364  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

This  indignity  caused  them  to  seek  Missouri  again ,  where 
a  flourishing  settlement  of  their  brethren  had  been  made. 
A  paper  was  soon  started  in  the  interests  of  Mormonism, 
and  a  church  regency  was  created  by  appointing  Joe 
Smith,  Sidney  Eigdon  and  Frederick  G.  Williams  as  a 
triumvirate  council,  who  should  represent  the  supreme 
church  government.  The  membership  now  numbered 
about  fifteen  hundred,  and  in  their  combined  strength 
they  asserted  a  sovereign  ownership  to  the  lands  in  Jack- 
son county.  Not  alone  this,  but  they  became  arrogant 
and  domineering,  threatening  dire  calamities  to  all  who 
refused  to  join  them  ;  that  the  wrath  of  God  was  about 
to  descend  upon  all  Gentiles,  whom  they  designated  as  a 
"  generation  of  vipers. "  This  supercilious,  brow-beat- 
ing style  of  proselyting  was  at  length  succeeded  by  rob- 
bery, following  the  example  of  Moses  and  his  people 
when  they  despoiled  the  Egyptians  by  God's  sanction. 
This  greatly  excited  the  Missourians,  and  it  was  shortly 
apparent  that  something  serious  was  about  to  occur. 
Outrages  continued  to  be  perpetrated,  until  during  the 
August  elections,  when  an  armed  body  of  three  hundred 
men  appeared  in  Independence  and  proceeded  to  tear  Mor- 
monism up  by  the  roots  ;  the  newspaper  office  was  first  de- 
molished, two  of  the  saints  were  badly  beaten,  and  sev- 
eral others  subjected  to  plastic  coverings  of  tar  and 
feathers .  The  Mormons  appealed  to  the  Governor  (  Dunk- 
lin)  demanding  protection,  and  a  party  of  militia  was  or- 
dered to  their  assistance  from  St.  Louis,  but  before  this 
relief  party  reached  Independence  another  collision  had 
occurred  between  the  citizen-mob  and  the  Mormons, 
which  resulted  in  the  burning  of  many  of  the  latter' s 
homes,  while  several  on  each  side  were  killed.  The 
Mormons  withdrew  from  Jackson  county  and  crossed 
over  the  Missouri  into  Clay  county,  where  they  re-estab- 
lished themselves. 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  365 

In  the  meantime  Kirtland  continued  to  be  a  head- 
quarters for  the  faithful,  and  when  news  of  the  war  in 
Missouri  reached  that  point  Joe  Smith  gathered  up  his 
followers  and  determined  to  measure  arms  with  the  mob. 
When  he  reached  the  Mississippi  river  his  party  was 
attacked  by  a  virulent  type  of  cholera,  from  which  dread 
disease  twenty  died.  Despite  his  revelations  and  procla- 
mations a  panic  ensued,  which  further  decimated  his 
ranks,  and  left  him  so  weak  a  following  that  the  project 
of  reclaiming  Zion  had  to  be  abandoned.  He  therefore 
returned  to  Kirtland  and  called  a  council  of  his  brethren, 
at  which  twelve  apostles  were  chosen,  with  Brigham 
Young  as  chief.  These  were  sent  on  missions  throughout 
the  East.  They  now  adopted  the  name  of  "  Latter-day 
Saints,"  and  repudiated  that  of  Mormons.  A  college 
was  founded  at  Kirtland  and  endowed,  among  other 
chairs,  with  a  Hebrew  professorship,  which  Joe  Smith 
fostered  by  direct  gifts.  A  temple  was  also  built  at  a 
cost  of  $40,000.  A  savings  bank  was  established  by 
Smith  and  Rigdon,  but  it  soon  after  failed  in  a  manner 
which  so  incensed  the  depositors  that  its  founders  were 
compelled  to  summarily  leave  the  State.  They  returned 
to  Missouri  and  went  about  building  up  Zion  again  in 
several  counties,  besides  establishing  the  town  of  Far 
West.  Now  succeeded  a  schism  in  the  church  which 
seriously  threatened  disintegration  ;  Orson  Hyde,  Heber 
Kimball  and  W.  Richards  had  been  sent  as  missionaries 
to  England,  and  in  their  absence  Smith  was  bitterly  de- 
nounced, and  internal  feuds  resulted  in  a  charge  being 
brought  against  the  church  that  it  was  in  antagonism  to 
the  State  and  threatened  a  rebellion.  War  was  again 
imminent ;  the  citizens  in  opposition  began  drilling,  while 
the  Mormons  organized  a  defence  corps,  which  they  called 
the  ' '  Danite  Band . "  A  severe  fight  did  occur  at  Gallatin, 


366  MYSTERIES     AND     MISERIES. 

in  which  several  of  the  citizens  and  Mormons  were  killed, 
and  th^s  led  to  a  vendetta  that  lasted  until  many  county 
officials  were  assassinated  and  the  town  of  Gallatin  re- 
duced to  ashes.  Governor  Boggs  issued  an  order  ex- 
pelling the  Mormons  from  Missouri,  and  fifteen  thousand 
militiamen  were  enrolled  and  sent  against  them.  This 
body  was  fired  upon  at  Haines'  Mill,  whereupon  the  militia 
fell  upon  the  attacking  party  and  exterminated  every 
one,  numbering  in  all  about  thirty.  The  whole  Mormon 
membership  in  Missouri  was  a  little  more  than  twelve 
thousand,  and  their  fighting  force  about  twenty-five 
hundred  ;  these  continued  the  unequal  conflict  until  Smith 
and  several  other  leaders  were  captured  at  Far  West, 
when  the  war  ended.  Joe  and  Hyrum  Smith  were  in- 
dicted for  murder,  arson,  treason,  larceny  and  breach  of 
the  peace.  A  preliminary  examination  resulted  in  their 
being  remanded  to  the  county  jail  for  trial  in  the  circuit 
court.  But  after  languishing  in  prison  for  some  months, 
and  becoming  tired  of  the  confinement,  they  bribed  their 
guards  and  got  out  of  the  State,  going  to  Illinois,  where 
a  large  body  of  their  deluded  followers  had  already  pre- 
ceded them,  settling  in  Adams  and  Hancock  counties. 

Illinois  received  the  Mormons  with  outstretched  hands 
of  welcome,  believing  they  had  been  unjustly  persecuted 
by  "Border  Ruffians  "  of  Missouri.  Joe  Smith  at  once 
cast  about  for  the  founding  of  another  settlement  of  his 
people.  Dr.  Isaac  Galland,  who  owned  a  vast  tract  of 
unimproved  land  in  the  northern  part  of  Hancock  county, 
sent  for  Smith  to  examine  it,  and  offered  such  amount  of 
the  land  as  might  be  required  upon  very  low  and  easy 
terms.  Smith  accepted  this  invitation  and  found  a  spot 
along  the  Mississippi  bank  which  he  so  favorably  consid- 
ered that  several  thousand  acres  were  purchased,  and 
the  building  up  of  Zion  was  for  the  fourth  time  renewed. 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  367 

This  site  was  chosen  for  the  founding  of  Nauvoo  and  the 
establishing  of  a  temple  consecrated  to  the  worship  of 
Latter-day  Saints.  In  eighteen  months  after  this  settle- 
ment was  begun  it  contained  over  two  thousand  buildings, 
including  two  school-houses  and  a  Mormon  tabernacle. 

o 

Now  had  their  days  of  triumph  come  ;  they  were  rich  in 
possessions  and  no  prejudices  assailed  them,  while  the 
membership  was  increasing  with  wonderful  rapidity. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

CHURCH    PROGRESS OBSCENITIES  AND  ASSASSINATIONS. 

/ 

BRIGHAM  YOUNG,  who  had  been  sent  to  England  as  a 
missionary,  labored  with  such  success  that  early  in  1841 
he  returned  to  America  with  seven  hundred  and  sixty- 
nine  converts,  while  the  efforts  of  other  apostles  had  also 
been  crowned  with  success,  so  that  during  this  year  Nau- 
voo increased  at  a  magical  rate,  and  in  October  of  the 
same  year  ground  was  broken  for  the  erection  of  a  mag- 
nificent temple. 

The^  Mormons  now  began  to  show  their  political 
strength,  and  attracted  to  their  ranks  doubtful  characters 
of  every  conceivable  ilk  ;  among  these  converts  obtained 
from  the  States  there  was  a  large  number  of  professional 
horse  thieves,  defaulters,  highwaymen,  and  political  jack- 
daws that  had  been  run  down  and  out  of  their  several 
communities  for  crime  or  unpopularity.  Some  of  John 
A.  Murrell's  Ohio  river  gang  became  converts  in  order  to 
secure  the  protection  which  Joe  Smith  guaranteed,  whilst 


368  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

others  came  from  defeated  banditti  in  Iowa,  Missouri  and 
Illinois.  These  lawless  characters  did  not  change  their 
natures  by  becoming  members  of  the  Mormon  church, 
but  this  centralization  of  outlaws  served  to  give  them 
broader  license  for  practicing  their  iniquities. 

So  great  did  the  Mormon  power  become  in  Hancock 
county  that  they  controlled  absolutely  all  the  county  of- 
fices, and  elected  Stephen  A.  Douglass  a  circuit  judge, 
who  certainly  entertained  no  prejudices  against  the  sect, 
and  in  one  particular  instance  showed  them  a  favor  of 
doubtful  legality.  They  were  actuated  by  this  verse  in 
their  book  of  Doctrine  and  Covenants : 

Behold  it  is  said  or  written  in  my  laws  :  Thou  shalt  not  get  in 
debt  to  thine  enemies.  But,  behold,  it  is  not  said  at  any  time 
that  the  Lord  shall  not  take  when  he  pleases,  and  pay  as  seemeth 
to  Him  good.  Wherefore,  as  ye  are  on  the  Lord's  business, 
whatsoever  ye  do,  etc. 

They  now  had  three  thousand  votes,  all  solid  in  the 
hands  of  Joe  Smith,  so  that  their  influence  was  coveted 
by  politicians  throughout  the  State,  and  in  national  elec- 
tions. Smith  had  the  naming  not  only  of  all  county 
officers,  but,  owing  to  the  close  vote  between  the  Whigs 
and  Democrats,  he  dictated  who  should  represent  the 
district  in  Congress. 

With  such  great  spiritual  and  temporal  power  in  his 
hands,  Joe  Smith  became  arrogant  and  dictatorial  not 
only  to  his  subjects,  who  looked  up  to  him  as  a  god,  but 
also  to  those  who  had  no  sympathy  for  the  deluded  people, 
and  regarded  Smith  as  a  hypocritical  scalawag,  with  more 
devil  than  saint  in  his  composition.  His  henchmen  con- 
tinued their  spoliation  of  Gentiles,  burning  hay-stacks 
and  pilfering  barns,  corn-cribs  and  smoke-houses.  Their 
strength  still  grew  amazingly  ;  but  not  content  with  en- 
richment in  power  and  purse,  Smith  gave  another  reve- 
lation that  was  designed  to  gratify  the  unholiest  of  pas- 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY. 

sions.  This  latter  law  was  with  relation  to  the  sealing  of 
women  to  male  members  of  his  flock,  and  it  was  in  such 
binding  clauses  that  the  women  were  compelled  to  submit 
to  promiscuity  or  suffer  the  wrath  that  was  promised 
them  for  disobedience.  He  claimed  that  God  was  about 
to  fulfil  the  prophecy  "that  the  time  shall  come  when 
seven  women  shall  cleave  unto  one  man,  begging  him  ttf 


ANOINTING  COMMUNICANTS  IN  THE  ENDOWMENT  HOUSE. 
(Representing  the  Ceremony  as  performed  by  the  Mormons  at  Nauvoo.) 

take  away  their  reproach."  The  day,  he  said,  was  at 
hand,  and  so  instructed  the  priesthood,  who  repeated  the 
revelation  to  lay  members.  The  doctrine  was  preached 
that  110  woman  could  be  saved  except  through  the  medium 
of  a  husband  ;  that  this  union  was  enjoined  by  divind 
authority  ;  that  it  was  purely  spiritual  and  pi  atonic,  and 
no  true  follower  of  the  prophet  would  hesitate  to  accept 

the  law. 
24 


370  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

In  fulfilment  of  this  new  mandate,  Smith  at  once  be- 
gan to  seal  to  himself  comely  wives  of  other  members, 
and  also  unctuous  lasses  of  goodly  promise.  Those  of 
the  laity  who  had  beautiful  spouses  were  called,  by 
Smith's  revelations,  to  preach  the  gospel  in  foreign 
lands,  and  during  the  absence  of  these  husbands  their 
wives  were  sealed  to  him.  Joseph  now  began  to  mani- 
fest a  connoisseur's  taste,  and  in  order  that  his  selections 
of  spiritual  partners  might  be  made  after  a  more  com- 
prehensive knowledge  of  their  configuration,  he  gave 
another  revelation,  which  resulted  in  the  establishment 
of  an  Endowment  House,  through  which  all  members 
were  required  to  pass  before  they  could  hope  for  salva- 
tion. In  the  administration  of  the  endowment  ceremo- 
nies, males  and  females  were  compelled  to  subordinate 
any  native  modesty  they  might  have.  The  women  re- 
paired to  a  chamber  where  their  clothing  was  all  re- 
moved ;  they  then  passed  in  nude  condition  to  the 
anointing  room,  where  a  priestess  received  them ;  they 
were  there  baptized  in  a  tub,  and  then  anointed  with 
olive  oil  until  their  flesh*  was  as  slick  as  a  Guinea  negro's. 
Those  who  know  of  the  secret  practices  of  the  priest- 
hood declare  that  Smith  and  his  colleagues  had  a  peep- 
hole made  in  the  side  of  this  endowment  room,  through 
which  they  studied  the  physical  attributes  of  female  com- 
municants, so  as  to  inform  themselves  fully  concerning 
the  desirableness  of  new  spiritual  wives.  This  cere- 
monial proceeding  led  to  beastiality  with  all  naturalness, 
and  even  Joseph  exhibited  an  emasculating  tendency  un- 
der the  practice. 

But  there  were  others  in  the  church  besides  Joseph, 
who  had  an  ambition  to  view  female  forms  with  a  critical 
eye,  and  for  the  benefit  of  these  influential  branches  of 
Smith's  religion,  he  extended  his  revelation  so  as  to  in- 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY. 


371 


elude  an  allegory  commencing  with  the  fall  of  Adam  and 
Eve,  which  act,  especially  that  representing  God  driving 
our  first  parents  from  the  Garden  of  Eden,  was  per- 
formed with  a  naturalness  of  make-up  that  made  the  old 
patriarchs — so-called — smack  their  lips,  and  the  women 
to  instinctively  hide  behind  their  hands,  with  fingers 
slightly  apart.  These  ceremonies  will  be  described,  at 


GOD  DRIVING  ADAM  AND  EVE  OUT  OF  EDEN. 
(Representing  the  Ceremony  as  performed  by  the  Mormons  at  Nauvoo.) 

length,  in  subsequent  chapters,  with  the  exception  that 
while  at  Nauvoo  the  Mormons  adhered  to  stark  nakedness, 
while  latterly  some  clothes  are  used. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  Mormonism  its  prime  principle 
seemed  to  be  the  subversion  of  morality  to  indecency,  and 
this  was  done,  too,  by  the  flagrant  practices  already  men- 
tioned. Joe  Smith  is  pronounced  by  a  woman  who  was 
sealed  to  him,  and  who  is  still  living,  as  a  very  monster 


372  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

of  licentiousness ;  and  she  further  declares  that  he  has 
ruined  young  girls  by  the  hundreds,  besides  debauching 
scores  of  other  men's  wives,  under  the  law  of  "  Sealing," 
which  is  interpreted  by  them  as  a  means  of  grace  de- 
signed for  the  special  salvation  of  woman.  They  claim 
that  no  woman  can  be  saved  except  through  the  aid  of  a 
man ;  it  is,  therefore,  necessary  that  all  females  should 
marry,  but  it  is  better  that  every  woman  be  sealed  to 
more  than  one  man,  so  as  to  insure  her  resurrection,  in- 
asmuch as  her  first  husband  might,  through  apostasy, 
become  alienated  from  God  and  could  not,  therefore, 
conduct  her  to  paradise ;  her  chances  are  consequently 
increased  by  being  sealed  to  several  men. 

During  Joe  Smith's  life  polygamy  was  not  enjoined, 
but  a  system  of  concubinage  existed  which  readily  led  to 
the  adoption  of  that  barbarous  practice.  The  Book  of 
Mormon  prohibits  a  plurality  of  wives,  and  in  such  ex- 
plicit language  that  it  furnishes  another  proof  of  Smith's 
duplicity  and  the  perversity  of  modern  Mormonism .  In  the 
second  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Jacob  will  be  found  this 
command : 

26.  Wherefore  I,  the  Lord  God,  will  not  suffer  that  this  people 
shall  be  like  unto  them  of  old. 

27.  Wherefore,  my  brethren,   hear    me,   and  hearken   to  the 
word  of  the  Lord ;  for  there  shall  not  any  man  among  you  have 
save  it  be  one  wife,  and  concubines  he  shall  have  none. 

28.  For  I,  the  Lord  God,  delightethin  the  chastity  of  women; 
and  whoredoms  are  an  abomination  before  me ;  thus  sayeth  the 
Lord  of  Hosts. 

29.  Wherefore   this   people   shall    keep  my   commandments, 
sayeth  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  or  cursed  be  the  land  for  their  sakes. 

31.  For  behold  I,  the  Lord,  have  seen  the  sorrow,  and 
heard  the  mourning  of  the  daughters  of  my  people  in  the  land 
of  Jerusalem;  yea,  and  in  all  the  lands  of  my  people,  because  of 
the  wickedness  and  abominations  of  their  husbands. 

35.  Behold,  ye  have  broken  the  hearts  of  your  tender  wives, 
and  lost  the  confidence  of  your  children,  because  of  your  bad 
examples  before  them ;  and  the  sobbing  of  their  hearts  ascend  up 


SALT  LAKE   CITY — K)LYGFAMY.  373 

to  God  against  you.  And  because  of  the  strictness  of  the  word 
of  God,  which  cometh  down  against  you,  many  hearts  died, 
pierced  with  deep  wounds. 

The  command  concerning  marriage,  as  given  in  this 
chapter,  is  hardly  susceptible  of  misinterpretation,  and  so 
far  as  an  outward  observance  may  indicate,  Joe  Smith  re- 
garded it  as  a  law,  though  he  transgressed  that  which  de- 
nied him  the  right  to  maintain  concubines.  This  law  is 
amplified  in  Chapter  III,  of  the  same  book,  which  furn- 
ishes a  conclusive  reply  to  a  question  frequently  asked 
by  Mormons  themselves. 

I  have  departed  somewhat  from  the  natural  sequence 
of  history  in  order  to  give  some  phases  of  Mormonism 
which  led  primarily  to  a  conflict  that  soon  after  drove 
them  from  Illinois  and  out  of  civilization  into  a  terri- 
tory where  their  infamous  customs  might  be  en  rapport 
with  their  wild  surroundings. 

It  is  possible  that  by  continuing  to  mass  their  polit- 
ical influence,  the  Mormons  might  have  remained  longer 
undisturbed,  for  each  party  courted  this  religious  influ- 
ence, and  was  willing  to  barter  public  acquiescence  for 
the  three  thousand  or  more  votes  Joe  Smith  collectively 
cast.  But  the  Mormons  were  anything  save  honest  or 
diplomatic  ;  they  were  not  only  fanatic  but  arrogant,  as 
though  their  power  were  omnipotent — and  there  is  no 
doubt  but  a  great  many  of  them  did  really  believe  in  the 
infallibility  of  their  church.  This  supremely  silly  con- 
fidence finally  led  Joe  Smith  to  announce  himself  as  a 
candidate  for  President  of  the  United  States  (1844). 
His  ignorant  dupes  conceived  his  candidacy  to  be  in  the 
hands  of  God,  and  that  his  election  was  absolutely  cer- 
tain ;  his  apostles  went  abroad  through  the  land  proclaim- 
ing their  prophet's  aspirations,  and  pronouncing  a  reve- 
lation from  God  calling  Joseph  to  preside  as  executive 


374  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

over  the  nation.  By  this  act  the  Mormons  created  an 
independent  party  which  forfeited  their  rights  to  political 
consideration  from  the  Whigs  and  Democrats,  and  left 
them  standing  alone  without  sympathy  or  influence. 

So  abusive  of  their  preferments  had  the  Mormons  be- 
come that  when  the  old  parties  dropped  away  from  them, 
the  citizens  generally,  of  Hancock  county,  commenced 
an  active  resistance  against  the  practices  which  were  now 
notorious  among  the  sect.  Nauvoo  had  become  little  less 
than  a  place  exhaling  the  most  noxious  and  licentious  in- 
fluences ;  men  and  women  joined  the  church  in  order  to 
indulge  propensities  which,  outside  of  the  Mormon  creed, 
were  crimes  and  misdemeanors  punishable  by  law ;  in 
addition  to  these  demoralizing  and  iniquitous  customs, 
the  boldest  outrages,  and  even  assassinations,  were  per- 
petrated by  the  Latter-day  Saints  upon  those  who  op- 
posed them. 

In  1845,  Joseph  Smith  had  a  great  yearning  toward 
the  wife  of  William  Law,  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
preachers  in  the  chui?ch.  This  lady  is  represented  as  hav- 
ing been  very  beautiful,  and  her  husband  was  attached 
to  her  with  the  holiest  devotion,  but  still  upheld  the 
teachings  of  Mormonism  until  his  domestic  happiness  fell 
directly  under  the  "sealing"  law.  Joe  Smith  insisted 
on  having  Law's  wife  sealed  to  him  spiritually,  which,  in 
fact,  meant  a  polyandry — two  husbands — for  Smith 
desired  to  play  that  part.  Law  violently  objected,  but 
his  opposition  could  avail  little  against  Smith's  influence 
and  his  "Danite  Band,"  for  his  wife  was  forcibly  taken 
as  a  "spiritual"  companion  to  the  Prophet,  and  of  course 
put  to  such  use  as  his  infamous  lust  suggested.  Law 
thereupon  raised  a  rebellion  in  the  church,  for  there  were 
some  who  could  understand  his  wrongs,  and  in  order  to 
increase  the  defection  he  established  an  anti-Smith  paper 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  375 

In  Nauvoo.  But  after  its  first  issue  a  mob,  under  the  in- 
struction of  Smith  as  mayor,  and  the  common  council  of 
Nauvoo,  invaded  the  .printing  office  by  force,  and  de- 
stroyed all  the  material.  Law  then  tried  to  have  pro- 
cesses served  on  Smith  and  his  Danite  council,  but  the 
civil  authority  was  in  the  hands  of  Mormons,  and  its  in- 
vocation brought  him  no  redress.  Such  a  condition  of 
affairs  could  not  longer  be  tolerated  ;  there  was  a  gath- 
ering of  frowning  clouds  that  portended  a  terrible  storm, 
and  when  it  T)roke  there  were  scattered  over  Hancock 
county  smoking  homes,  murdered  men  and  a  dead  pro- 
phet. Bodies  of  militia  were  organized  in  Hancock, 
Schuyler  and  McDonough  counties,  to  enforce  the  court 
mandates,  and  there  was  an  immediate  mustering  of 
forces  bent  on  subduing  if  not  eradicating  Mormonism. 
Carthage,  the  county  seat  of  Hancock,  although  gov- 
erned by  Smith's  hordes,  became  the  assembling  place 
and  headquarters  of  the  citizen  soldiery. 

A  force  of  ten  men  was  detailed  to  assist  the  constable 
to  arrest  the  Nauvoo  city  officers  and  conduct  them  to 
Carthage  for  examination  and  trial. 

In  the  meantime,  Joe  Smith,  as  Lieutenant-General  of 
the  Nauvoo  Legion,  had  declared  martial  law  in  the  city ; 
the  Legion  was  assembled  and  ordered  under  arms ;  the 
members  of  it  residing  in  the  country  were  summoned  into 
town.  The  Mormon  settlements  obeyed  the  mandates  of 
their  leader,  and  inarched  to  his  assistance.  Nauvoo  was 
one  great  military  camp,  strictly  guarded  and  watched, 
and  no  ingress  or  egress  was  allowed  except  after  the 
strictest  examinations.  In  one  instance,  a  citizen  of  Mc- 
Donough county,  who  happened  to  be  in  Nauvoo,  was  denied 
the  privilege  of  returning  until  he  made  oath  that  he  did 
not  belong  to  the  party  at  Carthage,  that  he  would  return 
home  without  calling  at  Carthage,  and  that  he  would  give 
no  information  of  the  movements  of  the  Mormons. 


376  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

However,  upon  the  arrival  of  the  constable  and  guard, 
the  mayor  and  common  council  at  once  signified  their 
willingness  to  surrender,  and  stated  their  readiness  to 
proceed  to  Carthage  next  morning  at  eight  o'clock. 
Martial  law  had  previously  been  abolished.  The  hour  of 
eight  o'clock  came,  and  the  accused  failed  to  make  their 
appearance.  The  constable  and  his  escort  returned. 
The  constable  made  no  effort  to  arrest  any  of  them,  nor 
would  he  or  the  guard  delay  their  departure  one  minute 
beyond  the  time,  to  see  whether  an  arrest  could  be  made. 
Upon  their  return  they  reported  that  they  had  been  in- 
formed that  the  accused  had  fled,  and  could  not  be  found. 

In  the  meantime,  Governor  Ford  made  a  requisition 
upon  the  officers  of  the  Nauvoo  Legion  for  the  State  arms 
in  their  possession.  It  appears  that  there  was  no  evi- 
dence in  the  quartermaster-general's  office  of  the  number 
and  description  of  the  arms  with  which  the  Legion  had 
been  furnished.  Dr.  Bennett,  after  he  had  been  ap- 
pointed quartermaster-general,  had  joined  the  Mormons, 
and  had  disposed  of  the  public  arms  as  he  pleased,  with- 
out keeping  or  giving  any  account  of  them.  On  this 
subject  General  Wilson  Law  was  applied  to  for  informa- 
tion. He  had  lately  been  the  major-general  of  the  Le- 
gion. He  had  seceded  from  the  Mormon  party ;  was 
one  of  the  owners  of  the  proscribed  press  ;  had  left  the 
city,  as  he  said,  in  fear  of  his  life,  and  was  one  of  the 
party  asking  for  justice  against  its  constituted  authorities. 
He  was  interested  to  exaggerate  the  number  of  arms 

OO 

rather  than  to  place  it  at  too  low  an  estimate.  From  his 
information  it  was  learned  that  the  Legion  had  received 
three  pieces  of  cannon  and  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
stand  of  small  arms  and  their  accoutrements.  Of  these, 
the  three  pieces  of  cannon  and  two  hundred  and  fifty 
stand  of  small  arms  were  surrendered.  These  arms  were 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  377 

demanded  because  the  Legion  was  illegally  used  in  the 
destruction  of  the  press,  and  in  enforcing  martial  law  in 
the  city,  in  open  resistance  to  legal  process  and  the  posse 
comitatus. 

The  surrender  was  also  demanded  on  account  of  the 
great  prejudice  and  excitement  which  the  possession  of 
these  arms  by  the  Mormons  had  always  kindled  in  the 
minds  of  the  people.  A  large  portion  of  the  militia,  by 
pure  misrepresentation,  had  been  made  to  believe  that 
the  Legion  had  received  from  the  State  as  many  as  thirty 
pieces  of  artillery  and  five  or  six  thousand  stand  of  small 
arms,  which,  in  all  probability,  would  soon  be  wielded 
for  the  conquest  of  the  country  and  for  their  subjection 
to  Mormon  domination. 

On  the  23d  or  24th  day  of  June,  Joe  Smith,  the 
Mayor  of  Nauvoo,  together  with  his  brother  Hyrum,  and 
all  the  members  of  the  council,  and  all  others  demanded, 
came  into  Carthage  and  surrendered  themselves  prisoners 
to  the  constable,  on  the  charge  of  riot.  They  all  voluntarily 
entered  into  a  recognizance  before  the  justice  of  the  peace, 
for  their  appearance  at  court  to  answer  the  charge.  All 
of  them  were  discharged  except  Joe  and  Hyrum  Smith, 
against  whom  the  magistrate  had  issued  a  new  writ,  on  a 
complaint  of  treason  ;  they  were  immediately  arrested  by 
the  constable  on  this  charge,  and  retained  in  his  custody 
to  answer  it. 

Soon  after  the  surrender  of  the  Smiths,  at  their  re- 
quest Captain  Singleton ,  with  his  company,  was  dispatch- 
ed from  Brown  county  to  Nauvoo,  to  guard  the  town, 
and  he  was  authorized  to  take  command  of  the  Legion. 
He  reported,  afterward,  that  he  called  out  the  Legion 
for  inspection ;  and  that  upon  two  hours'  notice,  two 
thousand  of  them  assembled,  all  of  them  armed  ;  and 
this  after  the  public  arms  had  been  taken  away  from 


378  MYSTEIUES    AND    MISERIES. 

them.     So  it  appears  that  they   had  a  sufficiency  of  pri- 
vate arms  for  any  reasonable  purpose. 

After  the  Smiths  had  been  arrested  on  the  new  charge 
of  treason,  the  justice  of  the  peace  postponed  the  exam- 
ination, because  neither  of  the  parties  was  prepared  with 
their  witnesses  for  trial.  Meanwhile  he  committed  them 
to  the  jail  of  the  county  for  greater  security.  The  jail 
in  which  they  were  confined  was  a  large  stone  building, 
containing  a  residence  for  the  jailor,  cells  for  the  close 
and  secure  confinement  of  prisoners,  and  one  larger  room 
not  so  strong,  but  more  airy  and  comfortable  than  the 
cells.  They  were  put  into  the  cells  by  the  jailor ;  but 
upon  their  remonstrance  and  request,  they  were  trans- 
ferred to  the  larger  room  ;  and  there  they  remained  until 
the  final  catastrophe.  There  were  comparatively  few 
who  seriously  apprehended  an  attack  on  the  jail,  though 
a  guard  was  stationed  about  the  building  to  protect  them. 
Nor  was  it  apprehended  that  there  was  the  least  danger 
on  their  part  of  an  attempt  to  escape ;  for  any  such 
attempt  would  have  been  the  signal  for  their  immediate 
death.  Indeed  if  they  had  escaped,  it  would  have  been 
fortunate  for  the  purposes  of  those  who  were  anxious  for 
the  expulsion  of  the  Mormon  population,  for  the  great 
body  of  the  people  would  most  assuredly  have  followed 
their  Prophet  and  principal  leaders,  as  they  did  in  their 
flight  from  Missouri.  It  was  afterward  learned  that  the 
leaders  of  the  anti-Mormons  did  much  to  stimulate  their 
followers  to  the  murder  of  the  Smiths  in  jail, by  alleging 
that  the  Governor  intended  to  favor  their  escape.  If 
this  had  been  true,  and  could  have  been  well  carried  out, 
it  would  have  been  the  best  way  of  getting  rid  of  the 
Mormons.  The  leaders  would  not  have  dared  to  return, 
and  all  their  church  would  have  folio  wed. 

The  force  assembled  at  Carthage  amounted  to  about 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  379 

twelve  or  thirteen  hundred  men,  and  it  was  calculated 
that  four  or  five  hundred  more  were  assembled  at  War- 
saw, Nearly  all  that  portion  resident  in  Hancock  were 
anxious  to  be  marched  into  Nauvoo.  This  measure  was 
supposed  to  be  necessary,  to  search  for  counterfeit  money 
and  the  apparatus  to  make  it,  and  also  to  strike  a  salu- 
tary terror  into  the  Mormon  people,  by  an  exhibition  of 
the  force  of  the  State,  and  thereby  prevent  future  out- 
rages, murders,  robberies,  burnings,  and  the  like,  appre- 
hended as  the  effect  of  Mormon  vengeance  on  those  who 
had  taken  a  part  against  them.  The  morning  of  the  27th 
day  of  June  was  appointed  for  the  march,  and  Golden' s 
Point,  near  the  Mississippi  river,  about  equidistant  be- 
tween Nauvoo  and  Warsaw,  was  selected  as  the  place  of 
rendezvous. 

Agreeable  to  previous  orders,  the  posse  at  Warsaw 
had  marched  on  the  morning  of  the  27th  of  June  in  the 
direction  of  Golden' s  Point,  with  a  view  to  join  the  force 
from  Carthage,  the  whole  body  then  to  be  marched  into 
Nauvoo.  When  they  had  gone  eight  miles,  they  were 
met  by  the  order  to  disband  ;  and  learning,  at  the  same 
time,  that  the  Governor  was  absent  at  Nauvoo,  about  two 
hundred  of  these  men,  many  of  them  disguised  by  black- 
ing their  faces  with  powder  and  mud,  hastened  immedi- 
ately to  Carthage .  There  they  encamped  at  some  distance 
from  the  village,  and  soon  learned  that  one  of  the  com- 
panies left  as  a  guard  had  disbanded  and  returned  to 
their  homes  ;  the  other  company,  the  Carthage  Grays, 
was  stationed  by  the  captain  in  the  public  square,  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  yards  from  the  jail,  whilst  eight  men  were 
detailed  by  him,  under  the  command  of  Sergeant  Frank- 
lin A.  Worrell,  to  guard  the  prisoners.  Communica- 
tion was  soon  established  between  the  conspirators  and 
the  company ;  and  it  was  arranged  that  the  guard  should 


380  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

have  their  guns  charged  with  blank  cartridges,  and  fire 
at  the  assailants  when  they  attempted  to  enter  the  jail. 
General  Deming,  who  was  left  in  command,  being  de- 
serted by  some  of  his  troops,  perceiving  the  arrange- 
ment with  the,  others,  and  having  no  force  upon  which 
he  could  rely,  for  fear  of  his  life  retired  from  the  village. 
The  conspirators  came  up,  jumped  the  slight  fence 
around  the  jail,  were  fired  upon  by  the  guard,  which,  ac- 
cording to  arrangement,  was  overpowered  immediately, 
and  the  assailants  entered  the  prison  at  the  door  of  the 
room  where  the  two  prisoners  were  confined,  with  two  of 
their  friends,  who  voluntarily  bore  them  company.  An 
attempt  was  made  to  break  open  the  door  ;  but  Joe  Smith 
being  armed  with  a  six-barreled  pistol,  furnished  by  his 
friend,  fired  several  times  as  the  door  was  bursted  open, 
and  wounded  three  of  the  assailants.  At  the  same  time 
several  shots  were  fired  into  the  room,  by  some  of  which 
John  Taylor,  now  president  of  the  Mormon  church,  re- 
ceived four  wounds  and  Hyrum  Smith  was  instantly 
killed.  Joe  Smith  now  attempted  to  escape  by  jumping 
out  of  the  second-story  window ;  but  the  fall  so  stunned 
him  that  he  was  unable  to  rise,  and,  being  placed  in  a 
sitting  posture  by  the  conspirators  below,  they  despatched 
him  with  four  balls  shot  through  his  body. 

Thus  fell  Joe  Smith,  the  most  successful  impostor  in 
modern  times  ;  a  man  who,  though  ignorant  and  coarse, 
had  some  great  natural  parts,  which  fitted  him  for  tem- 
porary success,  but  which  were  so  obscured  and  counter- 
acted by  the  inherent  corruption  and  vices  of  his  nature, 
that  he  never  could  succeed  in  establishing  a  system  of 
policy  which  looked  to  permanent  success  in  the  future. 
His  lusts,  his  love  of  money  and  power,  always  set  him 
to  studying  present  gratification  and  convenience,  rather 
than  the  remote  consequences  of  his  plans.  It  seems 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  381 

that  no  power  of  intellect  can  save  a  corrupt  man  from 
this  error.  The  strong  cravings  of  the  animal  nature 
will  never  give  fair  play  to  a  fine  understanding ;  the 
judgment  is  never  allowed  to  choose  that  good  which  is 
far  away,  in  preference  to  enticing  evil  near  at  hand. 
And  this  may  be  considered  a  wise  ordinance  of  Provi- 
dence, by  which  the  counsels  of  talented  but  corrupt  men 
are  defeated  in  the  very  act  which  promised  success. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  pretended  Prophet 
practiced  the  tricks  of  a  common  impostor ;  that  he  was 
a  dark  and  gloomy  person,  with  a  long  beard,  a  grave 
and  severe  aspect,  and  a  reserved  and  saintly  carriage  of 
his  person ;  on  the  contrary  he  was  full  of  levity,  even 
to  boyish  romping ;  dressed  like  a  dandy,  and  at  times 
drank  like  a  sailor  and  swore  like  a  pirate.  He  could,  as 
occasion  required,  be  exceedingly  meek  in  his  deportment, 
and  then  again  rough  and  boisterous  as  a  highway  rob- 
ber, being  always  able  to  satisfy  his  followers  of  the 
propriety  of  his  conduct.  He  always  quailed  before 
power,  and  was  arrogant  to  weakness.  At  times  he  could 
put  on  the  airs  of  a  penitent,  as  if  feeling  the  deepest 
humiliation  for  his  sins,  suffering  unutterable  anguish, 
and  indulging  in  the  most  gloomy  forebodings  of  eternal 
woe.  At  such  times  he  would  call  for  the  prayers  of 
the  brethren  in  his  behalf,  with  a  wild  and  fearful  energy 
and  earnestness.  He  was  full  six  feet  high,  strongly 
built,  and  uncommonly  well  muscled.  No  doubt  he  was 
as  much  indebted  for  his  influence  over  an  ignorant  peo- 
ple to  the  superiority  of  his  physical  vigor,  as  to  his 
greater  cunning  and  intellect. 

The  death  of  Joseph  and  Hyrum  Smith  created  the 
most  profound  excitement  in  Nauvoo,  where  their  people 
became  fairly  wild  with  affected  grief.  The  funeral  was 
attended  by  fully  five  thousand  persons,  and  such  marks 


382  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES, 

of  honor  were  given  the  dead  Prophets  as  might  have 
well  become  true  divinities.  At  the  time  of  their  death 
Joseph  Smith  was  thirty-nine  years  of  age,  and  Hyrum 
forty-four.  In  a  period  of  fifteen  years  these  men, 
illiterate  as  they  were,  had  created  a  religious  commotion 
in  America,  and  brought  to  an  acceptance  of  their  anoma- 
lous doctrine  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  souls  ; 
they  had  come  up  from  obscurity,  passed  through  the 
crucible  of  antagonism,  and  in  death  their  followers  re- 
garded them  as  martyrs  worthy  of  deification. 


CHAPTER  V. 

BITTER  FIGHTING  AND  CHURCH  DISSENSIONS. 

AFTER  the  Smiths  were  assassinated  a  serious  change 
occurred  among  the  Saints,  which  was  a  prognostic  of 
impending  danger,  and  the  vendetta  that  was  soon  to  be 
inaugurated.  Joseph  Smith  believed  in  hereditary  suc- 
cession so  far  as  his  own  family  interests  were  concerned, 
and  shortly  before  his  death  he  declared  that  a  son  was 
about  to  be  born  unto  his  wife,  Emma,  who  should  raise 
up  Zion  and  re-establish  the  church  upon  Eden's  ancient 
site,  in  Jackson  county,  Missouri.  On  the  17th  of  No- 
vember following  a  son  was  born  to  Emma,  to  whom 
was  given  the  name  David  Hyrum,  and  it  is  to  him  the 
Mormons  still  look  up  as  to  a  saint  to  whom  God  will 
delegate  the  power  prophesied  of  him . 

But  an  immediate  ruler  was  needed,  and  the  most 
violent  scenes  were  enacted  by  opposing  factions,  who 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  383 

sought  by  persuasion  and  force  to  elevate  their  respective 
candidates.  William  Smith,  Joseph's  eldest  surviving 
brother,  claimed  the  regency  by  virtue  of  hereditary  as- 
cent, while  Sidney  Rigdon  urged  his  candidacy  by  plead- 
ing priority  in  the  presidency  ;  that  the  mantle  should  be 
transferred  to  him  because  he  stood  next  to  Joseph  in  his 
official  relation  to  the  church.  Lyman  Wright  harangued 
the  people  in  his  own  behalf,  asserting  that  he  had  re- 
ceived a  revelation  from  God ,  calling  him  to  the  successor- 
ship.  Brighain  Young  was  also  an  aspirant,  claiming 
special  eligibility  because  of  his  successful  missionary 
labors.  There  were  no  less  than  a  dozen  other  candi- 
dates, and  all  entered  some  plea  similar  in  kind  to  those 
advanced  by  Smith,  Rigdon,  Wright  and  Young. 

On  the  7th  of  October,  in  response  to  an  encyclical 
letter,  there  was  an  assemblage  of  Mormon  ecclesiastics 
who  were  called  upon  to  determine  the  future  church 
government.  At  this  meeting  it  was  decided  that  the 
"  College  of  Twelve  Apostles"  should  elect  a  ruler,  and 
after  a  short  deliberation  this  body  invested  Brigharn 
Young  with  the  vestments  and  insignia  of  chief  poten- 
tate. This  action  was  followed  by  great  discord  ;  many 
withdrew  with  their  dissatisfied  leaders,  and  not  a  few 
accompanied  Rigdon  to  Pennsylvania  where  he  tried  to 
plant  the  stakes  of  a  new  Zion. 

After  Brigham's  elevation  the  church  became  ag- 
gressive ;  every  meeting  thereafter  was  distinguished  by 
the  most  violent  addresses,  made  against  Gentiles  gener- 
ally. Large  quantities  of  arms  were  secretly  obtained, 
and  Nauvoo,  which  was  now  a  city  of  fifteen  thousand 
people,  became  the  drill  and  camp-ground  of  a  revengeful 
multitude.  What  could  not  be  accomplished  by  open 
force  was  attempted  by  assassination,  arson  and  perse- 
cution. The  trial  of  those  who  were  concerned  in 


384  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

Smith's  death  developed  not  only  an  acrimonious  feeling, 
but  threatened  a  collision  between  Mormons  and  their 
opponents ;  a  detail  of  men  was  made  by  Governor 
Ford  to  preserve  the  peace,  but  while  no  overt  act  was 
committed  during  the  trial,  no  force  could  prevent  a 
massing  of  men  intent  on  precipitating  a  decisive  con- 
flict. Everybody  went  armed  with  pistols  and  bowies ; 
every  highway  bristled  with  lurking  foes,  so  that  life  be- 
came almost  too  cheap  for  estimation. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1845,  some  of  the  ultra  anti-Mor 
mons  of  Adams  county  resolved  to  rid  their  section  of 
the  Saints,  and  to  this  end  addressed  a  note  of  warning 
to  several  leaders,  who,  instead  of  obeying,  stolidly  re- 
fused to  move.  A  result  of  this  was  the  burning  of  about 
one  hundred  Mormon  houses  in  Adams  county,  the  occu- 
pants of  which  were  compelled  to  flee  for  their  lives. 
This  incendiary  and  riotous  act  inflamed  the  Nauvoo 
Legion  anew,  so  that  they  went  out  upon  every  highway 
to  wreak  vengeance  upon  their  enemies.  They  killed 
dozens  of  men,  set  fire  to  the  property  of  the  Gentiles, 
plundered  houses,  and  committed  every  depredation  in 
the  catalogue  of  crime. 

The  war  had  now  come  in  earnest,  and  there  was  to  be 
no  backing  down  before  a  full  settlement  of  the  contest, 
determining  whether  the  Mormons  should  leave  Illinois 
or  remain  in  the  ascendancy.  Under  permits  from  Gov. 
Ford  many  companies  of  militia  were  organized,  while  at 
the  same  time  a  report  was  industriously  circulated  that 
the  United  States  government  would  send  a  large  force 
of  soldiers  to  the  scene  of  strife  for  the  purpose  of  sub- 
jugating or  annihilating  the  Mormons. 

In  the  meantime  Brigham  Young  despatched  several 
prominent  members  of  his  priesthood  with  instructions  to 
search  for  another  place  upon  which  to  establish  Zion, 


SALT  LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  385 

evidently  anticipating  a  time  when  the  removal  of  his 
church  from  Illinois  would  be  a  necessity.  These  loca- 
tors, after  several  months'  wandering  over  territorial 
plains  and  wilderness,  found  a  spot  in  Weber  Valley , Utah, 
which  they  considered  well  suited  to  their  purpose,  and 
upon  returning  to  Nauvoo  made  report  accordingly. 

Having  appealed  in  vain  for  aid  from  the  State  and 
national  authorities,  Brigham  and  his  people  believed  the 
rumor  concerning  a  proposed  invasion  of  his  domain  by 
several  regiments  of  soldiers,  and  he  therefore  concluded 
to  at  once  abandon  Illinois  and  proceed  to  Utah.  In  the 
winter  of  1845-6  an  order  was  promulgated  by  Brigham 
announcing  the  decision  of  his  council,  and  proclaimed  a 
revelation  from  God  which  commanded  the  Mormons  to 
gather  together  their  possessions  and  build  up  Zion  anew 
in  Weber  Valley.  In  pursuance  of  this  command  the 
Mormons  sold  their  lands  in  Nauvoo,  and  throughout 
Hancock,  Adams,  McDonough  and  Schuyler  counties, 
realizing  prices  for  the  same  less  than  they  might  have 
brought  at  sheriff's  sale.  Before  the  middle  of  1846 
nearly  twenty  thousand  of  these  strangely  united  people 
had  crossed  the  Mississippi  and  were  wearily  plodding 
their  dreary  way  across  a  wild  country,  bearing  with  them 
only  necessary  utensils  and  provisions,  drawn  by  ox 
teams. 

About  one  thousand  Mormons  remained  in  Nauvoo 
until  the  following  fall,  when  they  were  attacked  by  about 
eight  hundred  State  troops,  and  after  four  days'  fighting 
were  compelled  to  leave  the  State  precipitately.  Some 
of  these  took  the  easiest  route  open  to  them,  down  the 
river,  and  stopped  at  St.  Louis,  where  they  remained,  for 
nearly  two  years,  and  established  a  place  of  worship  on 
the  corner  of  Fifth  and  Morgan  streets,  but  their  purpose 
was  to  abide  in  St.  Louis  only  until  they  could  learn  with 
25 


386  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

what  success  Zion  had  been  reconstructed  and  planted  in 
Utah,  and  upon  the  founding  of  Salt  Lake  City  all  these 
loiterers  left  Missouri  and  joined  their  brethren  in  the 
wilderness. 

The  journey  performed  by  so  many  thousand  families, 
from  Nauvoo  to  Utah,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in 
history.  A  majority  of  them  started  in  November,  and 
these  were  divided  up  into  parties  of  ten  wagons,  each 
being  under  orders  of  a  captain,  while  Brigham  acted 
as  commander  of  the  whole.  Starting  out  at  such  a  sea- 
son they  were  exposed  to  all  the  rigors  of  winter,  and  in- 
clemency of  fall ;  men  might  have  performed  this  march 
without  experiencing  any  great  suffering,  but  our  sympa- 
thies are  keenly  excited  for  the  women  and  little  children 
who  made  up  a  greater  part  of  the  hegira  :  families  were 
called  from  warm  firesides  where  blazing  logs  on  the 
hearths  invited  domestic  assemblage  ;  brides  left  altars  ; 
farmers  turned  back  ere  the  furrow  was  run ;  mothers 
rose  up  out  of  beds  of  travail ;  schools  were  dismissed 
that  the  pupils  might  join  in  the  pilgrimage  ;  there  was 
no  abiding  for  preparation,  or  consideration  for  the  en- 
feebled ;  like  the  Canaanites,  the  Mormons  had  been  set 
upon,  and  to  escape  the  sword  and  torch,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  flee  to  a  far  country  and  submit  themselves  to 
the  vicissitudes  and  sufferings  which  awaited  them  on 
the  way. 

On  the  day  these  unhappy  people  left  Illinois  the  Mis- 
sissippi river  was  frozen  over  so  as  to  permit,  crossing 
with  teams.  Upon  reaching  the  interior  of  Iowa  heavy 
rains  were  encountered  that  swelled  the  smaller  streams, 
impeded  travel  and  subjected  the  Mormons  to  such  in- 
clemency that  disease  broke  out  among  them  and  carried 
off  hundreds.  When  the  rains  ceased  falling  intense 
cold  succeeded,  which  was  made  more  difficult  to  endure 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  387 

by  the  addition  of  heavy  snow-storms  that  blocked  their 
route,  and  at  times  overwhelmed  them.  In  such  dread- 
ful exposure  men  and  women  suffered  terribly,  but  their 
afflictions  were  as  nothing  compared  with  that  which 
overcame  the  tender  bodies  of  little  children,  hundreds 
of  whom  froze  to  death  while  nursing  at  their  mothers' 
breasts.  All  along  that  dreary,  frozen  highway  were 
the  marks  of  bleeding  feet  tinging  the  sheeted  wilder- 
ness, while  body  after  body  was  consigned  to  tombs 
carved  out  of  nature's  winding  cerements  ;  tears  glistened 
and  chrystalized  on  every  cheek  that  blanched  with  sor- 
row and  suffering.  Still  ownward  the  fugitives  pressed, 
those  in  the  lead  blazing  trees  to  guide  their  followers, 
until  Council  Bluffs  was  reached.  Here  they  were  com- 
pelled to  halt,  or  else  sacrifice  themselves  to  the  unpity- 
ing  elements  that  seemed  to  grow  constantly  more 
furious  and  blighting.  They  went  into  camp  six  miles 
west  of  Omaha  ;  but  as  the  weather  continued  its  severity, 
about  one^  thousand  log  huts  were  built,  into  which  the 
miserable  people  crawled  and  saved  themselves  from 
freezing  to  death.  Here  they  remained  three  months,  in 
the  meantime  keeping  up  their  devotional  exercises,  which 
had  much  to  do  in  sustaining  the  Mormons  in  their  trials. 
Many  of  those  capable  of  performing  hard  work  scattered 
through  Iowa  and  engaged  as  farm  hands  or  set  up  trade- 
shops,  so  as  to  employ  the  time  of  their  detention  profita- 
bly. About  five  hundred  more  enlisted  in  the  United 
States  army  for  service  in  the  Mexican  war.  These  were 
mustered  in  at  Leavenworth  and  then  marched  to  Cali- 
fornia, where,  after  eighteen  months  of  service  they  were 
disbanded,  peace  having  been  concluded  with  Mexico 
(1848). 

During  their  three  months'   stay  in  winter  quarters, 
which  place  is  now  called  Florence,  seven  hundred  of  the 


388  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

Mormons  died,  of  which  number  five  hundred  were  child- 
ren ;  this  fact  tells  a  story  of  hardships  and  sufferings 
that  excites  a  sympathy  impossible  to  express,  and  de- 
spite all  religious  bigotry  or  prejudice,  it  serves  to  re- 
mind us  that  we  are  still  brothers  in  flesh  and  feeling, 
though  estranged  in  spirit. 

Early  in  April,  1847,  Brigham  Young  set  out  at  the 
head  of  a  party  numbering  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  to 
review  the  location  selected  by  those  first  sent  to  search 


DESERTED  MORMON  CABIN1  AT  FLORENCE. 

for  a  new  place  to  establish  the  church.  John  Taylor, 
who  was  one  of  the  priesthood,  expressed  great  anxiety 
to  locate  on  Vancouver  Island,  while  others  contended 
that  Northern  California  was  preferable,  but  Brigham 
was  inclined  to  adopt  the  place  first  chosen,  and  his  will 
being  law  there  was  no  further  discussion  of  the  ques- 
tion. This  advance  party,  with  seventy  wagons,  pro- 
ceeded directly  over  the  Fremont  trail,  and  along  Platte 
River  several  hundred  miles,  when  they  turned  north 
nearly  to  the  Black  Hills,  thence  west  again  over  a  new 
route  until  they  struck  Emigrant  Canon,  through  which 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  389 

they  penetrated  to  Jordan  Valley,  reaching  there  July 
24th,  1847.  This  date  the  Mormons  have  commemor- 
ated by  fixing  upon  it  ''Anniversary  Day,"  which  has 
ever  since  been  duly  observed. 

Jordan  Valley  was  found  inviting  enough  to  warrant 
them  in  pitching  their  tents,  and  here  they  began  planting 
some  few  vegetables  and  fixing  the  stakes  for  a  new 
settlement. 

The  sufferings  and  bitter  privations  that  had  fallen  so 
heavily  upon  the  pilgrims  created  much  dissatisfaction 
and  excited  in  some  a  rebellious  spirit.  In  fair  weather, 
and  under  propitious  skies,  Mormonism  grew  apace  and 
planted  its  roots  like  a  banyan  tree,  but  lowering  clouds 
and  visitations  of  adversity  struck  it  with  disease,  so  that 
many  of  its  once  most  promising  branches  dropped  off. 
Recusant  parties  of  tens  and  scores  left  Florence  from 
time  to  time,  determined  either  upon  a  re-establishment 
elsewhere  in  the  States  or  a  total  abandonment  of  their 
religion.  Many  argued  that  if  the  Mormon  church  really 
represented  God's  will  He  would  never  have  subjected  its 
followers  to  such  direful  afflictions  ;  that,  since  He  parted 
the  Red  Sea  to  permit  a  safe  crossing  of  the  fugitive 
Israelites,  His  divine  favor  should  also  be  extended  to 
the  Mormons  languishing,  freezing  and  dying  in  a  bleak 
wilderness.  This  argument  was  so  effective  that  nearly 
three-fourths  of  the  whole  number  withdrew  from  the 
encampment  and  turned  back,  and  only  four  thousand 
remained  steadfast.  These  few  of  tenacious  faith  fol- 
lowed after  Brigham  the  succeeding  fall  and  settled  with 
their  pioneer  brethren  in  Jordan  Valley.  Upon  their 
arrival,  however,  provisions  had  become  so  scarce  that 
during  the  winter  (which,  in  that  climate,  is  fortunately 
mild  )  subsistence  was  to  be  had  only  out  of  roots  and  the 
flesh  of  such  wild  animals  as  they  could  kill,  wolves  and 
rabbits  furnishing  most  of  the  meat  obtainable. 


390  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

In  1849  an  abundant  harvest  rewarded  their  industry, 
and  from  that  time  we  may  date  Mormon  prosperity  in 
Utah.  It  was  also  during  this  year  (November  10th) 
that  their  beautiful  temple  in  Nauvoo,  said  to  have  cost 
one  million  dollars,  was  set  on  fire  and  entirely  consumed 
except  the  outer  walls,  which  were  left  to  stand,  like 
grim-visaged  battlements,  guarding  still  the  memory  of 
those  who  conceived  Mormonism  and  dedicated  a  princely 
temple  to  its  propagation.  But  less  than  one  year  later 
(May  27th,  1850)  the  elements  combined  for  the  de- 
struction of  this  relic  of  Smith's  perverted,  if  not  dis- 
eased, conceptions  ;  a  furious  wind  assailed  the  blackened 
walls  and  tore  them  asunder  so  completely  that  scarcely 
one  stone  was  left  upon  another. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FOUNDING  OF  SALT  LAKE MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE. 

THUS  far  the  history  of  Mormonism,  embracing  about 
twenty  years,  represents  the  faith  in  a  succession  of  con- 
flicts with  opposing  neighbors ;  advances  and  retrogres- 
sions, but  always  presenting  a  bold,  arrogant  and  gener- 
ally aggressive  front.  Hereafter  the  Church  will  be  found 
autocratic  and  potential,  with  triumph  resting  upon  all  its 
endeavors,  despite  the  resistance  offered  by  the '  govern- 
ment or  threats  of  national  legislation  looking  to  its 

O  O 

suppression. 

Jordon  Valley  was  little  less  than  a  desert  when  Brig- 
ham  began  his  settlement  there.  Over  in  the  Weber 
district  there  was  a  beautiful  purling  stream  traversing 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  391 

primeval  fields,  and  a  profusion  of  natural  products,  but 
it  was  only  a  narrow  vale,  a  by-path,  as  it  were,  cut 
through  beetling  cordillera,  affording  a  space  too  circum- 
scribed for  a  large  colony  that  needs  must  have  regard 
for  its  defences  as  well  as  the  means  of  support. 

In  view  of  these  facts  Brigham  passed  southward 
forty  miles  and  accepted  a  desert  plain  over  which 
the  grim  shadows  of  a  perpetually  snow-capped  range 
of  mountains  hung  in  the  early  and  later  hours  of 
every  day.  Nothing  but  sage  brush  was  indigenous  to 
the  soil,  and  even  this  product  received  the  wind  in  its 
rattling,  crispy  branches  in  a  way  that  told  how  seldom 
the  earth  there  was  refreshed  by  seasonable  rains.  But 
up  in  the  Wasatch  mountains  that  circled  this  arid  valley 
there  was  plenty  of  water,  which  kept  plunging  down  as 
the  snow  limit  was  touched  by  melting  airs,  while  ebul- 
lient springs  fed  the  parched  earth  and  made  possible  a 
successful  cultivation  of  the  soil.  Brigham  Young  was 
quick  to  perceive  that  while  this  valley,  as  a  whole,  was 
dry  and  barren,  that  irrigation  could  be  easily  accom- 
plished, and  with  an  abundance  of  water  he  argued  reas- 
onably that  the  soil  might  be  rendered  fertile.  He  ac- 
cordingly set  about  digging  ditches  until  the  whole  dis- 
trict abounded  with  a  net-work  of  trenches  through 
which  now  ran  the  most  delicious,  cool,  clear  water,  that 
speedily  transformed  the  waste  into  prolific  farms,  out  of 
which  soon  came  an  abundant  reward.  A  city  was  also 
founded  at  the  same  time,  in  which  the  stakes  of  Zion 
were  firmly  planted,  and  there  was  joy  again  among  the 
Mormons.  This  municipality  was  called  Salt  Lake  City, 
because  it  lay  near  the  south  end  of  that  great  salt  basin 
in  Utah  which  has  ever  been  a  marvel  to  geologists. 

During  the  settlement  of  Jordon  Valley  the  country 
was  overrun  with  a  gold  fever  that  intensified  for  several 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

years  after,  and  brought  the  Western  <3oast  into  communi- 
cation with  all  the  world.  Thousands  of  adventurers 
now  peopled  the  plains  in  moving  caravans,  and  Salt 
Lake  City  being  fairly  upon  this  inter-oceanic  highway, 
became  a  familiar  resting-place  for  weary  travelers.  At 
first  these  stray  pilgrims  were  treated  very  kindly  by  the 
Mormons,  but  as  the  town  began  to  increase  with  Gentiles 
this  considerate  feeling  gradually  changed  into  persecu- 
tion, the  Saints,  no  doubt,  being  influenced  by  a  spirit  of 
retaliation  for  what  they  conceived  was  the  oppression 
they  had  suffered  in  Missouri  and  Illinois.  This  prejudicial 
treatment  developed  from  disdain  and  injustice,  involving 
security  of  property,  into  confiscation  and  murder.  The 
"Danite  Band,"  which  became  much  more  ferocious  and 
unmerciful  under  Brigham's  autocracy  than  it  had  ever 
shown  itself  under  Joe  Smith,  extended  its  license  beyond 
punishing  apostates,  even  to  highway  robbery  and  secret 
assassination  upon  Gentile  parties.  In  order,  that  they 
might  not  be  without  a  defence  in  case  accusation  should 
be  made  against  them,  they  perpetrated  these  crimes 
under  the  disguise  of  Indians.  Hundreds  of  men  jour- 
neying across  the  continent  were  intercepted  by  these 
voracious  fiends  and  cruelly  murdered  without  a  color  of 
justification,  being  impelled  to  such  commissions  solely 
by  covetousness  and  religious  fanaticism.  These  out- 
rages became  so  common  that  to  enumerate  them  all 
would  require  the  space  of  a  volume  larger  than  this 
book,  for  there  were  thousands  so  killed.  At  the  same 
time  those  Gentiles  living  in  Salt  Lake  City  were  so  in- 
timidated that  they  feared  to  make  any  report  of  Mor- 
mon atrocities  or  to  leave  the  city,  for  nearly  every  one 
who  attempted  such  an  escape  was  interrupted  and  killed. 
Several  Federal  officials  had  been  murdered ,  and  these  cri  mes 
served  as  warning  examples  to  those  remaining  in  Utah, 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  393 

until  at  length  the  Mormons  as  a  body  became  so  em- 
boldened that  they  positively  refused  any  recognition  of 
United  States  authority,  and  a  clash  occurred  over  an 
attempt  made  by  the  United  States  marshal  to  summon 
jurors  for  Federal  courts,  in  opposition  to  the  Mormons, 
who  insisted  on  the  Territorial  marshal  executing  all  such 
summons.  Their  opposition  to  the  lawful  authority  was 
excited  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  it  had  been  decided  to 
put  upon  trial  several  Mormon  murderers,  and  their  friends 
determined  to  give  these  culprits  immunity  through 
Mormon  juries.  But  matters  were  not  suffered  to  rest 
in  passive  opposition,  and  pending  a  decision  of  the 
question  thus  raised  a  body  of  armed  Saints  entered  the 
Federal  court  room  and  by  threats  of  violence  compelled 
Judge  Stiles  to  adjourn  his  sitting.  Thomas  Williams,  a 
Mormon  lawyer,  protested  against  this  violent  indignity 
to  United  States  authority,  which  so  incensed  his  brethren 
that  he  was  shortly  afterward  foully  murdered. 

This  first  overt  act  against  national  authority  occurred 
in  the  fall  of  1856,  and  following  it  Mormon  audacity  in- 
creased ;  they  stole  the  District  Court  records,  and  defied 
all  attempts  to  put  upon  trial  their  bloody  handed  Dan- 
ites.  A  few  Gentiles  succeeded  in  escaping  to  the  States, 
where  due  report  was  made  of  the  insurrectionary  state  of 
affairs  in  Utah,  and  as  Congress  had  adjourned  President 
Buchanan  ordered  a  heavy  detachment  of  regular  soldiers 
(three  thousand)  to  subjugate  the  hostile  Mormons  and 
restore  government  authority.  Gen.  W.  S.  Harney  was 
given  command  of  this  force  and  his  resolution  was  such 
that  the  troops  were  pushed  forward  so  rapidly  as  to 
leave  no  room  for  doubt  that  the  mission  was  one  of  posi- 
tive determinate  service,  but  he  was  soon  after  succeeded 
by  Albert  Sidney  Johnson,  who  moved  with  extreme 
caution  and  indecision. 


394  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

The  darkest  chapter  of  Mormonism,  and  the  blackest, 
perhaps,  upon  the  pages  of  American  history,  now  fol- 
lows. 

Upon  learning  that  Government  troops  were  en  route 
to  attack  his  dominion,  Brighain  Young,  Orson  Pratt, 
Heber  Kimball  and  Daniel  H.  Wells,  began  to  stir  up 
their  people  by  prophesies,  revelations  and  curses  that 
made  very  demons  out  of  their  followers.  They  adopted 
tactics  employed  by  Mohamet,  when,  to  render  his  sub- 
jects more  fearless  in  defence  of  Islam,  he  taught  that 
all  who  died  in  battle,  fighting  for  their  religion,  would 
be  instantly  transported  to  Paradise,  and  receive  such  re- 
wards as  God  had  reserved  for  his  faithful  soldiers.  This 
doctrine  fell  upon  Mormons  like  armors  of  invulnerability, 
and  they  rallied  around  their  leaders  with  a  fanatical 
fervency  that  made  them  furies.  Every  Mormon  became 
a  spy  upon  his  neighbor,  that  the  slightest  defection  or 
traitorous  spirit  might  be  quickly  discovered  and  instantly 
dealt  with. 

A  party  of  Danites  was  sent  out  by  Brigham  to  infest 
the  highway,  and  ordered  to  slay  and  spare  not.  The 
harvest  of  bitter  vengeance  was  rife  and  the  keen  sickle 
of  death  was  thrust  in  for  a  reaping.  All  along  that 
overland  trail  through  Utah  an  unmerciful  rage  strung 
its  victims  ;  men,  women  and  children,  unconscious  of  a 
foe,  while  trundling  through  the  great  canons,  picturing 
their  fortune  in  the  golden  Occident,  or  admiring  those 
wonderful  exhibitions  of  God's  marvellous  architecture 
that  lined  their  way,  were  shot  down  as  though  they  were 
ravenous  wolves,  while  their  bodies  were  as  invariably  muti- 
lated and  left  to  fester  on  the  virgin  soil  that  blushed  at 
such  nameless  crimes.  Hundreds  of  small  squads,  fami- 
lies traveling  toward  California  with  the  hope  of  better- 
ing their  condition,  were  thus  annihilated,  and  these  in- 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  395 

describable  outrages  were  all  crowned  by  the  most  con- 
summate act  of  ferocious  villainy  that  has  ever  occurred 
in  this  God  favored  country.  This  most  atrocious,  foul, 
and  appalling  crime  is  known  throughout  the  world  as 
the  "Mountain  Meadows  Massacre,"  which  occurred  on 
the  17th  of  September,  1857,  and  in  which  one  hundred 
and  thirty  men,  women  and  children  were  murdered  un- 
der circumstances  that  are  positively  awful. 

Mountain  Meadows  is  a  beautiful  spot  in  Washing- 
ton county,  Utah,  three  hundred  miles  from  Salt 
Lake  City,  and  on  the  overland  road  leading  to  Los 
Angeles.  It  is  about  two  miles  long  by  one  mile 
broad,  and  is  bordered  on  every  side — save  an  en- 
trance and  exit  gate,  the  latter  end  terminating  in  a 
canon — by  precipitous  mountains,  which  no  one  could 
scale  except  by  slow  and  irksome  exertions.  Into  this 
gorge  the  caravan  of  victims  made  their  way  half -fam- 
ished ,  as  they  had  prepared  provisions  to  last  them  only 
to  Utah,  where  they  expected  to  replenish  ;  but  Brigham 
Young  had  issued  an  order  forbidding  all  Mormons  from 
selling  Gentile  pilgrims  any  kind  of  supplies  under  pain 
of  a  severe  penalty,  which  they  knew  would  be  enforced. 
These  half-starved  people  were  therefore  compelled  to 
subsist  on  anything  that  fell  in  their  way  and  to  continue 
their  journey  through  the  great  American  desert.  Moun- 
tain Meadows  was  an  oasis  which  yielded  some  grass  for 
their  draught  animals,  and  at  the  mouth  of  the  canon  was 
a  beautiful  spring  that  invited  them  to  stay  their  march 
and  rest  awhile  beside  its  refreshing  waters. 

Directly  after  the  pilgrims  struck  Utah  their  presence 
was  reported  to  the  Saints  in  Salt  Lake,  and  JohnD.  Lee, 
a  diabolical  instrument  of  Satan  and  Brigham,  at  once 
conceived  the  determination  to  exterminate  them.  He 
accordingly  enlisted  one  hundred  Mormons  and  procured 


396  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

also  the  aid  of  two  hundred  Indians,  who  were  promised 
a  large  supply  of  blankets,  provisions  and  arms  if  they 
would  assist  in  the  intended  massacre.  This  infamous 
party  proceeded  to  intercept  the  pilgrims,  whom  they 
found  at  the  Meadows,  but  instead  of  descending  upon  them 
with  fire  and  sword,  their  cowardly  hearts  would  not 
suffer  them  to  measure  arms  with  the  feeble  force  of 
emigrants.  John  D.  Lee,  therefore,  approached  them  in 
the  guise  of  a  friend,  proffered  his  assistance  and  offered 
to  conduct  them  out  of  the  territory,  but  he  made  one 
proviso,  viz.  :  that  the  emigrants  should  turn  over  all  their 
arms  to  his  men  for  the  time  being,  claiming  that  his 
force  was  without  weapons.  These  pretences  were  so 
specious  and  urged  so  reasonably  that  the  unsuspecting 
pilgrims  were  overjoyed  at  what  they  esteemed  such  dis- 
interested friendship.  Some  of  the  emigrants  surren- 
dered their  arms,  but  others  retained  theirs,  which  were 
needed  to  kill  game. 

After  thus  obtaining  many  guns  and  pistols,  the  Mor- 
mons and  Indians  drew  off  ostensibly  to  examine  the  ad- 
vance and  select  future  camping  places.  But  this  with- 
drawal was  made  in  order  to  hold  a  council  amon^r  them- 

o 

selves  concerning  the  proposed  attack.  On  the  follow- 
ing morning,  however,  several  Indians  betrayed  an  over- 
weening anxiety  to  consummate  the  fell  slaughter,  and 
made  an  attack  upon  the  emigrants  before  Lee  had 
given  orders  ;  but  this  premature  act  was  succeeded  by 
the  entire  Mormon  party  and  their  allies  pouring  through 
the  Meadows  gates  upon  their  almost  helpless  victims. 
But,  almost  astonishing  to  relate,  the  few  and  almost 
wholly  unarmed  party  received  the  attack  like  Napoleon's 
guard,  and  with  wonderful  dexterity  threw  their  wagons 
into  a  corral  and  prepared  to  defend  their  lives.  At  the 
first  discharge  seven  of  the  pilgrims  were  killed  and  fifteen 


SALT    LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  397 

wounded,  and  the  return  fire  dealt  death  to  three  Indians  ; 
but  as  all  the  attacking  party  were  dressed  and  painted 
like  Indians,  the  emigrants  supposed  their  enemy  were 
none  but  that  race,  and  wondered  why  their  supposed 
friends  (Mormons)  did  not  come  to  their  assistance. 

The  first  attack  was  repulsed,  and  Lee  sent  a  courier 
back  to  Cedar  City  for  reinforcements,  while  the  force 
was  stationed  so  as  to  besiege  the  emigrants,  and  par- 
ticularly to  prevent  them  from  obtaining  water  from  the 
spring.  Every  attempt  to  reach  the  spring  brought-  a 
volley  of  Mormon  bullets  that  killed  several  of  the  party. 
The  situation  became  hourly  more  distressing ;  two 
whole  days  passed  without  any  water,  and  the  party 
were  upon  the  point  of  famishing  from  thirst.  At  length 
two  little  girls,  eight  years  of  age,  were  sent  out  with 
buckets,  the  distressed  emigrants  thinking  they  would 
be  spared  ;  but,  when  stooping  down  to  fill  their  pails, 
both  the  little  girls  fell  pierced  with  a  score  of  bullets. 
This  cruel  act  discouraged  the  besieged  party,  and  they 
knew  not  what  to  do  ;  in  their  despairing  condition  three 
brave  men  offered  to  make  an  attempt  at  passing  through 
the  enemy's  lines  at  night,  to  spread  a  report  and  obtain 
succor.  After  commending  themselves  to  God  and  re- 
ceiving the  prayers  of  a  Methodist  clergyman,  the  three 
brave  couriers  started  upon  their  perilous  mission  on  foot ; 
they  succeeded  in  passing  the  besiegers,  but  their  tracks 
were  discovered,  and  they  were  pursued  more  than  one 
hundred  miles  and  captured  ;  0113  was  shot  and  instantly 
killed  ;  another  was  tied  to  a  stake  and  burned,  while  the 
remaining  one  suffered  a  horrible  mutilation  of  his  body, 
so  that  he  died  in  frightful  agonies. 

The  remainder  of  this  dreadful  story  has  been  already 
told  by  one  whose  opportunities  well  qualified  her  to  give 
all  the  facts — Mrs.  Ann  Eliza  Young — as  follows : 


398 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  399 

"The  morning  of  the  17th  of  September  dawned.  The 
hearts  of  all  the  doomed  party  were  sick  with  deferred 
hope.  Suddenly  a  cry  of  relief  broke  from  the  corral. 
A  wagon,  filled  with  white  men,  bearing  a  white  flag,  was 
seen  coming  down  the  Meadows.  Succor  was  at  hand. 
Their  terrible  tortures  were  over.  Strong  men  wept  like 
children  at  the  thought  that  their  beloved  ones,  for  whom 
they  had  agonized  through  all  those  dreary  days  and 
nights  of  siege,  were  safe  at  last. 

"The  deliverers  were  none  other  than  John  D.  Lee 
and  the  officers  of  the  Mormon  militia.  Immediately 
upon  their  appearance  the  *  Indians'  ceased  firing,  and, 
in  their  fancied  security,  the  besieged  emigrants  rushed 
outside  the  corral  to  meet  their  rescuers.  How  their 
hearts  warmed  toward  Brigham  Young  and  the  Mormon 
people.  All  the  wrongs  that  they  had  suffered  at  their 
hands  dwindled  into  insignificance  before  this  last  crown- 
ing act  of  humanity.  Into  the  sympathizing  ears  of 
their  saviors  they  poured  the  terrible  story  of  their  suf- 
ferings. Lee  is  said  to  have  wept  while  listening  to  the 
recital,  and,  at  the  end,  assured  them  of  his  deep  sympa- 
thy, and  promised  all  the  relief  in  his  power. 

* '  How  much  he  would  be  able  to  do  for  them  he  was  un- 
able to  say  until  he  had  consulted  with  the  Indians,  and  he 
went  back  and  pretended  to  hold  a  consultation.  The  people 
were  sure  he  could  save  them,  since  he  was  Indian  agent, 
and  must  necessarily  have  much  influence  over  them ,  and 
their  joy  was  unspeakable.  He  soon  returned  with  the 
welcome  news  that  they  were  free,  but  on  condition  that 
they  would  lay  aside  their  arms.  There  was  no  thought 
of  treachery  in  their  hearts,  and  without  a  moment's 
hesitation  they  complied  with  the  strange  condition. 
They  laid  aside  their  trusty  rifles,  that  had  stood  them  In 
such  good  stead  during  all  the  days  of  the  siege ;  they 


400  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

gave  up  revolvers  and  bowie-knives,  faithful  companions 
on  their  dreary  journey,  and  came  forth  from  their  in- 
trenchments  unarmed,  and  as  defenceless  as  the  children 
themselves. 

6  '  As  they  issued  from  the  corral  a  guard  of  soldiers 
was  drawn  up  to  escort  them  to  a  place  of  safety.  The 
men  were  separated  from  the  women  and  children,  and 
were  placed  in  front,  while  the  latter  were  in  the  rear. 
It  seems  almost  strange  that  no  suspicion  of  their  deliv- 
erers entered  their  minds  at  this.  But  why  should  even 
curiosity  be  aroused  ?  The  white  flag  was  waving  over 
their  heads,  and  they  were  under  the  protection  of  United 
States  militia-  Where  that  flag  waved,  they  were  safe 
and  free. 

* '  Notwithstanding  their  exhaustion  and  their  weakness 
from  hunger,  they  marched  joyously  along,  exulting  in 
their  regained  freedom,  when  suddenly  the  troops  halted, 
and  the  fatal  order  to  fire  was  given  by  Lee,  and  repeated 
down  the  line  by  all  the  under  officers.  In  an  instant  it 
flashed  across  the  helpless  victims  how  cruelly  they  had 
been  betrayed,  and,  with  shrieks  of  the  wildest  agony, 
they  fell  bleeding  to  the  earth.  Young  and  old  shared 
the  same  fate.  Gray-haired  men  and  beardless  boys  were 
alike  cut  down.  The  Indians,  who  were  ambushed  near 
by,  joined  the  Mormons  in  the  work  of  slaughter,  until 
not  one  of  all  the  men  was  left. 

"  And  what  of  the  helpless  women  and  children?  All 
the  womanhood  within  revolts  at  the  thought  of  their 
horrible  fate,  and  my  woman's  soul  cries  out  in  agony  at 
the  recital  of  the  sufferings  of  these  helpless  ones.  Some 
of  them  were  killed  by  their  husbands,  fathers,  or 
brothers — happy  souls,  who  thus  escaped  the  most  cruel 
torture.  Death  was  nothing,  compared  to  the  fiendish 
brutalities  which  they  suffered  before  they  were  allowed 


SALT   LAKE    CITY-— POLYGAMY.  401 

to  die.  Some  of  the  women  were  too  ill  to  walk.  They 
were  taken  outside  the  corral,  driven  up  to  the  scene  of 
the  massacre,  stripped  of  their  clothing,  shot,  and  their 
mutilated  bodies  thrown  down  in  a  pile  with  the  rest. 

' '  To  the  honor  of  many  of  the  men  be  it  said — the 
younger  ones,  especially — they  refused  to  join  in  this 
horrible  work,  and  some  of  them  made  efforts  to  protect 
these  helpless  women  from  their  fiend-like  tormentors.  I 
used  often,  while  living  in  Payson,  to  see  a  man  named 
Jim  Pearce,  whose  face  was  deeply  scarred  by  a  bullet 
wound,  made  by  his  own  father,  while  the  brave  young 
fellow  was  trying  to  assist  a  poor  girl  who  had  appealed 
to  him  for  succor.  Another  girl  threw  herself  on  her 
knees  before  Lee's  son,  and  clinging  to  him,  begged  for 
mercy.  His  heart  was  touched,  and  he  promised  to  spare 
her,  but  his  father  shot  her  while  she  knelt.  Lee  also 
shot  another  girl,  who  had  drawn  a  dagger  to  defend  her- 
self from  him. 

''Even  the  children  were  not  spared.  They  shared  the 
horrible  fate  of  their  parents.  In  vain  they  begged  for 
mercy.  The  bloodthirsty  brutes  to  whom  they  knelt  had 
no  feeling  of  pity  or  compassion.  They  laughed  at  their 
entreaties,  and  mocked  their  terrified  cries.  Their  little 
throats  were  cut,  and  their  bodies  thrown  carelessly  in  a 
heap.  Only  seventeen  of  those  supposed  to  be  too  young 
to  remember  any  of  the  occurrences  of  this  fearful  day 
were  saved ;  and  of  these  seventeen,  two  were  disposed 
of  after  reaching  Salt  Lake  City,  for  making  some  re- 
marks concerning  the  massacre  which  showed  an  intel- 
ligence beyond  their  years.  It  is  said — on  how  good 
authority  I  do  not  know— that  Daniel  H.  Wells,  mayor 
of  Salt  Lake  City,  one  of  the  First  Presidency,  Second 
Counsellor  toBrigham,  Lieutenant-General  of  theNauvoo 
Legion,  killed  one  of  these  babes  with  his  own  official 
26 


402  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

hand.  As  I  said  before,  I  cannot  vouch  for  the  authen- 
ticity of  this  rumor, _but  those  who  know  the  man  best 
are  the  most  ready  to  believe  it.  He  is  certainly  capable 
of  an  act  like  this. 

"  The  whole  affair  lasted  but  about  half  an  hour,  when 
the  assassins  rode  away,  carrying  all  the  clothing  and 
baggage  of  the  emigrants,  leaving  the  bodies  to  the 
wolves  and  ravens.  But  they  were  past  hurt  now,  and 
wolves'  fangs  or  ravens'  beaks  were  powerless  to  harm, 
although  they  might  lacerate  the  already  mutilated  bodies 
until  they  should  be  past  all  recognition.  A  person  who 
visited  the  field  of  slaughter  eight  days  after  the  massacre 
gave  the  following  account  of  it :  He  said  men,  women 
and  children  were  strewn  over  the  ground,  or  were  thrown 
into  piles.  Some  were  shot,  others  stabbed,  and  others 
had  their  throats  cut.  They  were  entirely  stripped  of 
clothing,  and  their  bodies  were  mutilated  by  the  wolves. 
There  were  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  bodies  in  all. 
These,  with  the  three  men  who  were  killed  while  under- 
taking to  bring  assistance,  another  who  was  shot  outside 
the  corral,  but  whose  body  could  never  be  found,  and  the 
two  children  who  were  murdered  at  Salt  Lake  City,  made 
one  hundred  and  thirty-three  victims  of  this  fearful  and 
unparalleled  assassination . 

"  The  spoils  were  carried  to  Cedar  City,  and  placed  in 
the  tithing  office  there,  after  the  Indians  had  received 
their  share.  It  is  told  by  a  man,  who  then  was  a  mere 
boy,  that  the  night  that  the  spoils  were  brought  into  town 
he  and  two  companions  slept  in  the  tithing  office.  The 
cellars  were  filled  with  everything  that  had  been  taken 
from  the  emigrants,  and  the  bloody  garments,  stripped 
from  the  dead  bodies,  were  thrown  down  on  the  floor. 
One  of  the  men  connected  with  the  massacre  came  in, 
and  threw  himself  down  to  sleep,  without  perceiving  the 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  403 

boys.  Scarcely  had  the  place  become  quiet  with  the 
peculiar,  painful  silence  which  night  brings,  when  sud- 
denly the  room  they  were  in,  and  the  cellar  beneath  it, 
where  all  the  plunder  was  stored,  resounded  with  cries, 
groans,  sobs,  and  the  most  piercing,  agonized  shrieks. 
The  guilty  man  jumped  from  his  couch  and  fled  out  into 
the  night,  locking  the  doors  after  him.  In  vain  the 
terrified  boys  tried  to  force  the  lock.  It  remained  fast 
and  firm,  and  still  the  wails  and  cries  pierced  the  air. 
They  were  almost  dead  with  terror,  and  clambering  up  to 
the  roof,  managed  to  escape  from  the  haunted  spot. 
Nothing  can  induce  this  man  to  believe  that  his  imagina- 
tion played  him  a  trick.  '  I  know,'  he  says,  'that  the 
spirits  of  these  foully  murdered  men  and  women  were  in 
the  tithing  house  that  night.'  It  is  not  the  first  time, 
by  any  means,  nor  the  last,  that  a  Mormon  public  build- 
ing has  been  haunted. 

"The  property  of  the  emigrants  was  sold  at  public 
auction,  in  Cedar  City,  by  Bishop  John  M.  Higbee,  and 
they  were  readily  bought  by  the  eager  Saints.  To  this 
day  jewelry  is  worn  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and  teams  are 
seen  in  the  streets,  that  are  known  to  have  belonged  to 
the  fated  emigrant  train.  A  lady  in  Salt  Lake  City  was 
one  day  showing  a  silk  dress  and  some  jewelry  to  some 
friends,  in  the  presence  of  one  of  the  children  who  had 
been  saved  from  the  massacre.  The  little  one,  on  catch- 
ing sight  of  the  dress,  burst  out  into  a  frantic  fit  of  weep- 
ing, and  between  the  sobs  cried  out,  *  O,  my  dear  mam- 
ma !  That  is  her  dress  ;  she  used  to  wear  it.  Where  is 
my  mamma?  Why  doesn't  she  come  for  me?'  It  is 
said  that  other  children  identified  clothing  and  trinkets 
which  they  had  seen  worn  by  members  of  the  party.  In- 
deed, these  children  remember  more  than  their  captors 
fancy ;  else  they  would  not  have  been  allowed  to  leave 


404 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 


the  Territory,  as  many  of  them  have  done,  having  for  the 
most  part  been  returned  to  their  friends  in  the  States. 

"My  valued  friend  and  traveling  companion,  Mrs. 
Cooke,  had  two  of  them  under  her  charge  for  some  time, 
and  she  has  told  me  that  they  recognized  John  D.  Lee, 
and  one  of  them  said  one  day,  very  quietly,  but  very  de- 


terminedly,  'When  I  get  to  be  a  man  I  will  go  to  the 
President  and  ask  him  for  a  regiment  of  soldiers,  and  I 
will  bring  them  here  to  kill  the  men  who  murdered  my 
father  and  mother  and  brother,  but  I  will  kill  Lee  myself . 
I  saw  him  shoot  my  sister,  and  I  shall  not  die  happy  un- 
less I  kill  him.'  Mrs.  Cooke  says  they  used  often,  in 
their  childish  prattle,  to  tell  events  of  the  massacre, 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  405 

which  showed  that  they  knew  perfectly  what  part  Lee 
and  his  confederates  had  in  the  affair. 

4 'On  their  return  from  the  scene  of  the  massacre,  the 
leaders  determined  to  conceal  the  crime,  but  although 
they  kept  quiet  a  year,  after  that  they  were  unable  to 
refrain  from  speaking.  Lee  himself  was  the  first  to  dis- 
close the  fate  of  the  party.  Like  the  Ancient  Mariner, 
he  went  up  and  down  compelling  every  person  whom  lie 
met  to  listen  to  his  story  of  an  emigrant  train  that  had 
been  murdered  by  the  Indians.  By  and  by  it  was  faintly 
rumored  that  the  Indians  were  not  alone  in  their  work  of 
destruction,  but  that  they  were  assisted  by  the  white  men. 
Then  the  rumors  grew  louder,  and  some  of  the  partici- 
pants, overcome  with  remorse,  confessed  their  complicity 
in  the  crime. 

"  A  short  time  since  a  man  died  in  Sevier  Valley,  who 
was  at  the  Mountain  Meadows.  He  always"  imagined 
that  he  was  followed  by  spectres,  and  he  grew  haggard 
and  worn  from  constant  terror.  '  Brigham  Young,'  he 
used  to  say,  '  will  answer  for  the  murder  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  innocent  souls  sent  to  their  graves  at  his  com- 
mand.' On  his  death-bed  he  besought  those  watching 
by  him  to  protect  him  from  the  spirits  that  were  hover- 
ing near  him,  waiting  to  avenge  themselves,  and  he  died 
in  the  fearful  ravings  of  a  horrible  terror.  Another  man, 
much  younger  than  the  one  referred  to  above,  was  also 
literally  haunted  to  death.  <  Would  to  God,'  he  would 
cry  in  the  bitterest  agony,  *  that  I  could  roll  back  the 
scroll  of  time,  and  wipe  from  it  the  damning  record  ;  the 
terrible  scenes  at  Mountain  Meadows  haunt  me  night  and 
day.  I  cannot  drive  them  away.'  He  has  been  known 
to  drive  out  for  a  load  of  hay,  and  return  quickly  in  ter- 
ror, leaving  his  team  in  the  field.  He  used  to  say  that 
the  cold,  calm  faces  of  the  dead  women  and  children 
were  never  out  of  his  sight. 


406  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

"And  what  of  the  mangled  bodies,  and  <the  cold, 
calm  faces'  that  were  left  upturned  to  the  September 
sky  ?  They  were  the  prey  of  wolves  and  vultures  ;  but 
the  bones  were  collected  by  an  old  Mormon,  who  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  deed  of  blood,  and  buried  in  the 
hollow  they  had  dug  inside  the  corral.  It  was  a  lit- 
eral labor  of  love.  Alone  he  performed  the  last  act  of 
kindness,  a  task  which  was  disagreeable  enough,  and  one 
that  of  necessity  was  done  hurriedly.  The  wild  beasts 
again  dug  up  the  bones,  and  they  were  strewn  all  over 
the  plain;  there  they  remained  until  1858,  when  the 
government  sent  General  Carlton  to  bury  the  bones  de- 
cently. A  large  cairn  of  stones  was  built  by  the  soldiers 
to  mark  the  resting-place  of  the  remains,  and  General 
Carlton  erected  a  cross  of  red  cedar,  on  which  was  in- 
scribed the  words,  *  Vengeance  is  mine,  I  will  repay, 
saith  the  Lord/  At  the  other  end  of  the  mound  was  a 
stone,  writh  the  inscription,  *  Here  one  hundred  and 
twenty  men,  women  and  children  were  massacred  in  cold 
blood,  early  in  September,  1857.  They  were  from  Ar- 
kansas . '  The  cross  was  destroyed  by  the  order  of  Brigham 
Young,  after  a  visit  to  the  spot.  It  was  the  first  promise 
of  payment  that  he  ever  rejected ;  and  this,  in  spite  of 
his  destruction  of  it,  will  yet  be  forced  upon  him." 


SALT  LAKE   CITY — POLYGAMY.  407 

CHAPTER  VII. 

MORMON  INDUSTRY  AND  THE  NEW  REVELATION. 

THE  record  of  indefensible  murders  belonging  to  the 
archives  of  Mormonism  is  so  long  that  to  give  only  the 
names  of  such  victims  would  require  a  volume  of  itself. 
The  Mormon  war  was  started  upon  a  principle  of  retri- 
bution, but  beyond  Harney's  first  strokes,  it  degenerated 
into  less  than  a  military  review,  while  the  Mormons 
continued  their  audacious  terrorizing  and  assassination. 
But  one  thing  remains  to  be  said  in  favor  of  either  side, 
viz. :  JohnD.  Lee,  the  arch  murderer,  was  finally,  after 
two  trials,  convicted  and,  on  the  23d  of  March,  1877, 
shot  for  his  diabolical  action  at  Mountain  Meadows.  His 
first  trial,  however,  was  a  farce,  because  Brigham  Young 
upheld  him  ;  but  after  Lee  made  a  confession  implicating 
Brigham,  in  fact  declaring  that  the  massacre  was  perpe- 
trated in  compliance  with  Brigham 's  orders,  then  the 
case  assumed  a  new  feature.  Lee  knew  too  much,  and 
he  was  accordingly  led  to  death  through  Mormon  in- 
fluence, becoming  at  once  a  sacrifice  to  his  own  guilty 
conscience  and  also  to  the  Church. 

I  will  proceed  no  further  with  the  bloody  record  which 
properly  belongs  to  Mormon  history  from  1856  until 
1865  ;  it  is  too  terrible  to  write,  and  every  repetition  of 
these  unspeakable  outrages  only  serves  to  show  the 
culpability  of  Congress  in  not  perfecting  some  legislation 
at  the  proper  time  that  would  have  brought  down  upon 
the  perverse,  blood-atoning  sect  the  vengeance  of  a  just 
law. 

In   the  succeeding  chapters  I  will   briefly  notice   the 


408 


MYSTERIES    AXD    MISERIES. 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  409 

civil  government  and  customs  of  Monnonism,  which  have 
quite  enough  of  sacrifice  in  them  to  give  effective  contrast 
to  their  public  rites.  There  is  one  thing  peculiar  to  Lat- 
ter-day Saints  that  must  be  acknowledged  in  their  favor  ; 
they  are  the  most  industrious  and  persistent  sect  on 
God's  footstool ;  in  this  their  history  is  very  remarkable. 
Upon  leaving  Jackson  county,  Missouri,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  part  with  nearly  all  of  their  possessions,  which 
were  considerable  ;  at  Nauvoo  they  built  the  finest  temple 
in  America  and  acquired  property  estimated  to  be  worth 
$5,000,000,  the  product  of  less  than  ten  years  labor,  and 
yet  nearly  all  of  this  was  surrendered  by  the  precipitancy 
of  their  enforced  flight  from  Illinois.  Upon  reaching 
Utah  they  were  without  money,  and  had  but  few  teams  ; 
besides,  their  new  location  was  only  a  waste  of  sterile, 
treeless  soil.  Yet  in  the  face  of  these  obstacles  they 
waxed  rich  rapidly  and  continued  to  increase  their  mem- 
bership. One  of  their  first  acts  after  founding  Salt  Lake 
City  was  the  erection  of  a  tabernacle,  which  stands  to 
this  day  as  one  of  the  wonderful  buildings  of  the  world, 
enclosing  the  largest  hall,  unsupported  by  pillars,  on 
either  continent,  while  its  accoustic  properties  are  such 
that  a  whisper  may  be  distinctly  heard  across  its  greatest 
length.  All  the  materials  used  in  its  construction,  lumber 
and  nails,  were  freighted  overland  from  Omaha,  by  ox 
teams ;  if  there  were  no  other  features  appertaining  to 
this  building  than  this  one  fact  it  is  quite  enough  to  make 
it  famous.  But  in  addition  to  the  tabernacle,  and  the 
vast  system  of  irrigation  they  perfected,  there  are  other 
displays  of  Mormon  industry  almost  equally  wonderful. 
Being  in  a  country  infested  with  Indians,  and  no  doubt 
anticipating  trouble  from  encroachments  like  those  they 
suffered  in  Missouri  and  Illinois,  the  Mormons  enclosed 
their  principal  institutions  with  walls,  exhibiting  rare 


410  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

skill  in  both  conception  and  execution.  These  walls  are 
made  of  cement  and  small  boulders  brought  from  Weber 
Canon ;  they  are  about  twelve  feet  high  and  four  feet 
thick,  while  at  short  intervals  they  are  strengthened  by 
heavy  buttresses  that  may  serve  also  as  barbacans  to  sig- 
nal approaches.  These  walls  surround  the  Bee  Hive 
mansion,  and  all  the  executive  auxiliaries,  which  com- 


MORMON  TEMPLE  AT  SALT  LAKE. 

pjise  more  than  a  score  of  houses  ;  they  are  also  built 
around  the  two  tabernacles,  temple  and  Endowment 
House. 

The  greatest  work  of  Mormonism,  though,  not  yet 
completed,  is  the  stone  temple,  a  structure  that  it  was 
designed  should  require  twelve  years — though  it  was 
really  begun  in  1853 — and  an  army  of  workmen  to  com- 
plete, and  when  finished  will  cost  $8,000,000.  The  main 
structure  will  be  one  hundred  feet  high,  and  the  whole  is 
of  massive  stone,  making  it  impervious  to  fire  or  the  at- 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  411 

tacks  of  mobs  ;  it  will  enclose  an  Endowment  House, 
which  is  laid  out  in  the  basement,  and  also  a  secret 
chamber  where  blood-atonement  may  be  practiced  with- 
out fear  of  the  despairing  cries  of  victims  reaching  be- 
yond the  dreadful  walls. 

Directly  after  the  firm  establishment  of  Mormonism  in 
Salt  Lake,  Brigham  Young  revised  the  church  creed  and 
made  many  changes  to  conform  to  his  own  interests.  As 
before  said,  Joseph  Smith  did  not  practice  polygamy, 
though  he  permitted  a  more  demoralizing  custom — con- 
cubinage— and  gave  no  law  respecting  a  plurality  of 
wives,  doubtless  because  it  did  not  occur  to  him  as  being 
so  gratifying  to  his  lusts  as  the  "  sealing  "  process.  But 
Brigham  had  different  views  after  his  succession,  and  his 
libidinous  greed  suggested  polygamy  ;  there  was  but  one 
way  to  introduce  the  new  law  so  as  to  give  it  the  nature 
of  a  divine  ordinance,  and  this  was  by  revelation ;  ac- 
cordingly Brigham  declared  to  his  people  that  Smith  had 
left  a  written  law,  given  directly  to  him  by  God  in  1843, 
in  which  the  ordinance  of  polygamy  was  commanded  to 
be  established  in  1852.  Brigham  announced  that  this 
revelation  had  been  found  in  a  cupboard  in  the  Prophet's 
house,  and  had  been  ever  since^care fully  guarded  and  con- 
cealed until  now  the  time  had  come  to  declare  it. 

This  revelation  is  quite  lengthy,  and  discusses  several 
questions  pertinent  not  only  to  polygamy,  but  also  giving 
priests  of  the  church  authority  to  regulate  such  marriage, 
and  prescribing  penalties  for  wives  who  refuse  to  recog- 
nize the  right  of  their  husbands  to  take  other  spouses. 
It  opens  with  a  verse  claiming  to  be  God's  words,  and 
proceeds  by  sections,  which  may  be  summarized  as 
follows : 

"  Verily,  thus  sayeth  the  Lord  unto  you,  my  servant 
Joseph,  that  inasmuch  as  you  have  inquired  at  my  hand 


412  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

to  know  wherein  I,  the  Lord,  justified  my  servants  Abra- 
ham, Isaac  and  Jacob,  as  also  Moses,  David  and  Solomon, 
my  servants,  touching  the  principle  and  doctrine  of  their 
having  many  wives  and  concubines;  behold,  audio!  I 
am  the  Lord,  and  will  answer  thee  as  touching  this  mat- 
ter," etc. 

It  will  not  e'scape  notice,  that  as  here  stated  Joseph  had 
asked  the  Lord  about  the  matter.  We  cannot  but  won- 
der whether  it  would  have  been  revealed  at  all,  without 
this  preliminary  questioning.  Many  good  Mormons 
think  it  would  not,  and  Mormon  ladies  frequently  express 
a  pious  regret  that  the  Prophet  ever  asked  about  it !  The 
section  concludes  by  pronouncing  damnation  upon  all  who 
reject  the  new  gospel. 

2.  This  section  states  that,  "All  covenants,  contracts, 
bonds,  obligations,  oaths,  vows,  performances,  connec- 
tions, associations  or  expectations  that  are  not  made  and 
entered  into,  and  sealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  promise  of 
him  who   is  anointed,"   are  void  in  eternity,  and  only 
good  for  this  world. 

It  sets  forth  also  with  great  verbosity  of  language,  that 
"  God's  house  is  a  house  of  order. " 

3.  The  same  principle  is  applied  to  the  marriage  cove- 
nant, stating  that  all  who  are  not  married  ' '  and  sealed 
according  to   the   new  and    everlasting    covenant,"  are 
married  for  this  world  only,  and  shall  not  be  entitled  to 
their  respective  partners  in  eternity,  but  shall  continue 
"angels  only,  and  not  gods,  kept  as  ministers  to  those 
who   are  worthy  of  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal 
weight  of  glory." 

4.  Description  of  the  future  glory  of  those  who  keep 
the  new  covenant:  "Then  shall  they  be  gods, because 
they  have  no  end ;  there  they  shall  be  from  everlasting 
to  everlasting,  because  they  continue  ;  then  shall  they  be 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  413 

above  all,  because  all  things  are  subject  unto  them.  Then 
shall  they  be  gods,  because  they  have  all  power,  and  the 
angels  are  subject  unto  them." 

5.  To  such  are  forgiven  all  manner  of  crimes,  except 
murder,  "wherein  they  shed  innocent  blood,"  and  blas- 
phemy against  the  Holy  Ghost.     Apostasy,-  be  it  noted, 
is  the  worst  form  of  the  latter  sin. 

6.  This  section  explains  the   cases   of  Abraham   and 
other  ancient  polygamists  at  great  length,  concluding  by 
citing    David   as   an   example   of    how   men   lose   their 
"  exaltation  "  by  abusing  their  privileges  :     "In  none  of 
these  things  did  he  sin  against  me,  save  in  the  case  of 
Uriah  and  his  wife,  and,  therefore,  he  hath  fallen  from 
his  exaltation  and  received  his  position  ;  and  he  shall  not 
inherit  them  out  of  the  world,  for  I  gave  them  unto  an- 
other, sayeth  the  Lord." 

7.  Great  power  is  conferred  upon   Joseph  Smith   to 
regulate  all  such  celestial  marriages,  punish  for  adultery, 
and  take  away  the  wives  of  the  guilty  and  give  them  to 
good  men. 

8.  This  section  gives  very  full  and  explicit  instructions 
to  Emma  Smith,  *wife  of  Joseph,  how  to  conduct  herself 
under  the  new  dispensation  ;  that  she  "  receive  all  those 
that  have  been  given  unto  my  servant  Joseph,  who  are 
virtuous  and  pure  before  me,"   and  threatening  her  with 
destruction  if  she  do  not. 

9.  The  revelation  changes  abruptly  and  gives  Joseph 
Smith  full  directions  how  to  manage  his  property  ;  par- 
ticularly •"  let  not  my  servant  Joseph  put  his  property  out 
of  his  hands,  lest  an  enemy  come  and  destroy  him,"  and 
threatening  severely  all  who  injure  him. 

The  reader  familiar  with  the  old  Revised  Statutes  of 
Illinois  would  be  surprised  to  find  the  Lord  talking  so 
much  like  a  justice  of  the  peace. 


414  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

10.  The  revelation  comes,  at  last,  to  the  gist  of  the 
matter,  and  grants  plurality  of  wives,  in  these  words : 

"  And  again,  as  pertaining  to  the  law  of  the  priesthood  : 
If  any  man  espouse  a  virgin  and  desire  to  espouse  an 
other,  and  the  first  give  her  consent  ;  and  if  he  espouse 
the  second,  and  they  are  virgins,  and  have  vowed  to  no 
other  man,  then  is  he  justified ;  he  cannot  commit 
adultery,  for  they  are  given  unto  him  ;  for  he  cannot 
commit  adultery  with  that  that  belongeth  unto  him  and 
to  none  else ;  and  if  he  have  ten  virgins  given  unto  him 
by  this  law,  he  cannot  commit  adultery,  for  they  belong 
to  him  and  are  given  unto  him  ;  therefore  is  he  justified. 
They  are  given  unto  him  to  multiply  and  replenish  the 
earth  according  to  my  commandment,  and  to  fulfil  the 
promise  which  was  given  by  my  Father  before  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world  ;  and  for  their  exaltation  in  the  eternal 
worlds,  that  they  may  bear  the  souls  of  men  ;  for  herein 
is  the  work  of  my  Father  continued,  that  He  may  be 
glorified." 

11.  Heavy   punishment   is   threatened  to    all   women 
who  refuse,  without  good  cause,  to  give  their  husbands 
second  wives,    concluding  as  follows:*   "And   now,    as 
pertaining  unto  this  law,  verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  I 
will  reveal  more  unto  you  hereafter ;  therefore,  let  this 
suffice  for  the  present.     Behold,  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega. 
Amen." 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  pretended  revelation,  but  those 
who  had  previously  practiced  an  indiscriminate  "  sealing,"' 
were  too  fully  in  sympathy  with  the  new  law  to  question 
its  authenticity.  They  embraced  it  like  a  thing  of 
perennial  pleasure,  and  directly  thereafter  the  Endow- 
ment House  was  prepared  for  the  celebration  of  these 
plural  marriages.  Brigham,  however,  divested  the  En- 
dowment ceremonies  of  those  loathsome  features  which 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  415 

distinguished  them  while  the  Church  was  in  Illinois,  as 
already  described,  and  substituted  a  scant  covering  for 
both  men  and  women,  but  still  leaving  many  disgusting 
phases  which  make  the  ritual  one  full  of  lewd  suggestions 
and  imbecile  cant. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    ENDOWMENT   HOUSE    CEREMONIES. 

A  COMPLETE  and  thorough  description  of  the  Endow- 
ment House  and  ceremonies  practiced  therein,  is  full  of 
marvelous  interest ;  many  revelations  have  been  made 
concerning  the  strange  rites  performed  upon  new  prose- 
lytes in  sealing  them  to  the  Mormon  church,  but  they  all 
lacked  thoroughness,  and  in  many  instances  were  pure 
inventions.  It  was  reserved  for  a  young  girl,  an  English 
importation,  to  tell  the  whole  story  and  describe  mi- 
nutely all  the  initiatory  services  in  Mormonism,  and  to 
explain  also  the  ceremonies  through  which  candidates  for 
marriage  are  required  to  pass.  This  lady,  whose  name  is 
Miles,  prefaces  her  exposure  of  the  Endowment  rites  with 
an  absorbingly  interesting  story  of  how  she  became  a 
convert  to  Latter-day  Saintship.  She  relates  that  her 
home  was  in  the  south  of  England,  where  she  lived  with 
her  parents,  who  had  a  numerous  family,  to  support 
which  they  were  sorely  pressed.  When  she  was  a  small 
child  a  young  lad  by  the  name  of  Miles  was  employed  by 
her  father  in  cultivating  a  farm,  but  upon  reaching 
eighteen  years  of  age,  or  thereabouts,  he  emigrated  to 


416 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 


ENDOWMENT    CEREMONIES  ILLUSTRATED. 

1.  Listening  to  the  Discourse  between  Elohim  and  Jehovah.    2.  Selecting  Eve.    3.  Satan  Tempting  ET«. 

A.  Tasting  the   Forbidden  Fruit.    5.  In    the    Gardea  of  Eden.     6.  Adjuiting  the  Fig  Leaf. 

7.  Hiding  from  Elohim.    8.  Satan  be/ore  Elohim.    9.  Driven  from  the  Garden  of  Eden. 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  417 

America,  and  became  converted  to  Mormonism  in  New 
York.  After  this  he  went  to  Salt  Lake,  ^here  he  re- 
mained several  years,  and  having  acquired  some  property 
he  returned  tcr  England  and  to  her  father's  house.  It 
was  during  this  visit  to  his  native  place  that  he  won  the 
affections  of  this  young  girl,  and  by  picturing  Utah  as  a 
land  richer  than  Canaan  and  the  Mormons  as  God's  chosen 
people,  able  to  work  all  manner  of  miracles,  he  succeeded 
in  inducing  her  to  think  favorably  of  their  religion,  and 
at  his  request  she  promised  to  be  his  wife.  He  explained 
to  her  that  Mormon  marriages  could  only  be  consum- 
mated by  bishops  of  the  Church,  and  that  salvation  could 
be  obtained  by  none  save  those  who  passed  through  the 
Endowment  House.  She  told  him  her  objections  to 
leaving  home  for  a  country  so  far  distant  as  Utah,  and 
that  the  Mormon  doctrine  had  been  represented  to  her  as 
embracing  polygamy.  This  he  strenuously  denied,  and 
urged  her,  by  employing  specious  promises  of  devotion, 
to  go  to  America  with  him  and  become  his  wife  through 
Mormon  ceremonies. 

Her  first  impressions  of  Salt  Lake  City  and  its  people 
were  very  favorable,  and  when  the  time  came  for  cele- 
brating her  marriage  with  Miles  she  was  unspeakably 
happy.  She,  therefore,  went  through  the  Endowment 
House,  received  her  robes,  and  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
same  day  approached  the  marriage  altar  with  joyful  heart. 
During  this  ceremony,  however,  she  was  confused  by 
a  question  asked  one  of  the  ladies  officiating  as  her 
bridesmaid  :  "  Do  you  give  your  consent  to  the  marriage 
of  this  woman  and  man?"  She  could  not  understand 
why  such  an  inquiry  should  be  made,  but  after  the  cere- 
mony was  completed  and  she  had  returned  home  with  her 
husband,  the  startling  fact  was  disclosed  that  Miles  had 
married  two  sisters  on  the  morning  of  the -same  day  that 
27 


418  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

her  nuptials  with  him  were  performed.  She  was  almost 
crazed  with  grief  and  mortification,  but  notwithstanding 
the  difficulties  and  influences  which  surrounded  her,  she 
arose  above  them  all  in  a-  transport  of  rage  and  demanded 
redress  for  her  wounded  honor.  Miles  replied  with  a 
laugh,  and  said  : 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?  You  are  now  a 
Mormon  and  subject  to  our  laws,  so  discretion  advises 
submission." 

But  Mrs.  Miles  would  not  suffer  such  a  betrayal  with- 
out at  least  an  effort  to  have  her  wrongs  adjusted,  for 
she  could  not  believe  such  a  marriage  binding. 

On  the  night  succeeding  the  nuptials  she  slept  in  a 
house  occupied  by  her  husband  and  his  other  two  wives, 
becau.se  she  had  no  other  place  to  go  ;  but,  determined 
that  their  relation  should  never  be  more  than  a  wife  and 
husband  a  mensa  et  thora,  she  repaired  to  separate 
apartments  and  bolted  her  door.  At  a  late  hour  Miles 
left  the  bed  of  his  two  sister- wives,  and  demanded 
admission  to  the  third,  but  being  refused,  he  burst  iq 
the  door  and  seized  his  recalcitrant  English  bride  in  such 
a  manner  as  left  no  doubt  concerning  his  purpose.  A 
bitter  struggle  ensued,  in  which  Mrs.  Miles  did  everything 
in  her  power  to  resist  a  further  desecration  of  her  honor, 
but  she  was  powerless  before  so  strong  an  antagonist, 
who,  by  superior  force,  compelled  a  submission  to  his 
infamous  lust. 

On  the  day  following  her  violation  she  appealed  to  the 
Federal  courts  for  redress ;  she  appAed  to  the  attorney- 
general  of  Utah,  and  not  only  instituted  suit  to  set  aside 
the  marriage,  but  became  a  prosecuting  witness  against 
Miles  before  the  grand  jury,  and  on  her  testimony  he  was 
indicted  for  bigamy,  and  afterward  convicted.  Miles, 
however,  took  an  appeal  to  the  United  States  Supreme 


SALT    LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  419 

Court,  which,  in  February  of  the  present  year  (1882), 
confirmed  the  inferior  court  judgment  that  had  sentenced 
him  to  a  term  of  two  years  in  the  penitentiary,  where  he 
now  is.  This  is  the  second  case  in  all  Mormon  history 
where  a  polygamist  of  that  church  has  suffered  a  con- 
viction for  the  crime. 

Mrs.  Miles  is  now  a  clerk  in  one  of  the  departments  at 
Washington,  and  recently  made  public  a  complete  ex- 
posure of  the  endowment  ceremonies,  which  is  copied  in 
this  connection  entire,  as  follows  : 

4 'The  Mormon  Endowment  House  is  a  plain  adobe 
building,  two  stories  high,  built  like  a  small  dwelling 
house,  so  as  not  to  attract  attention.  There  are  blinds 
to  all  the  windows,  which  are  nearly  always  kept  down. 
It  is  situated  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  Temple  block 
(which  includes  the  Tabernacle,  New  Temple,  etc.,)*  and 
the  whole  block  is  surrounded  by  a  very  high  wall. 

"On  a  certain  day,  not  necessary  to  mention,  I  went 
to  the  Endowment  House  at  8  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
taking  with  me  my  endowment  clothes  (consisting  of 
garment,  robe,  cap,  apron  and  moccasins).  I  believe 
people  used  to  take  their  own  oil,  but  that  is  now  discon- 
tinued, as  fees  are  charged.  I  went  into  a  small  room 
attached  to  the  main  building  (designated  in  the  plan 
by  the  name  of  Reception  Room),  which  was  crowded 
with  men  and  women,  having  their  bundles  of  clothing. 
The  entrance  door  is  cm  the  east  side,  and  in  the  south- 
west corner  there  is  another,  next  to  which  the  desk 
stood,  where  the  clerk  recorded  the  names,  etc.  Around 
the  north  and  west  sides  were  benches  for  the  people  to 
sit  upon. 

"On  going  up  to  the  desk  I  presented  my  recom- 
mendation from  the  bishop  in  whose  ward  I  was  staying, 
and  George  Reynolds, who  was  then  acting  as  clerk,  asked 


420 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 


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Officials'  Room. 

DIAGRAM  OF  ENDOWMENT  HOUSE — FIRST  FLOOR. 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  421 

me  my  name,  those  of  my  parents,  when  and  where  I 
was  born,  and  when  I  was  baptized  into  the  Mormon 
church. 

"That  over,  he  told  me  to  leave  my  hat,  cloak  and 
shoes  in  that  room  ;  and  taking  up  my  bundle,  I  went 
into  the  room  marked  3  on  the  plan,  where  I  sat  waiting 
till  it  came  my  turn  to  be  washed. 

"One  of  the  women,  an  officiating  high  priestess,  told 
me  to  come  behind^the  curtain  (which  I  have  indicated 
by  a  waving  line),  where  I  could  hear  a  great  deal  of 
splashing  and  subdued  conversation.  I  went,  and  after 
I  was  undressed,  I  had  to  step  into  a  long  bath,  about 
half  full  of  water,  when  another  woman  proceeded  to 
wash  me.  I  objected  strongly  to  this  part  of  the  busi- 
ness, but  she  told  me  to  show  a  more  humble  spirit. 
However,  when  she  got  down  to  my  feet,  she  let  me  go, 
and  I  was  turned  over  to  the  woman  who  had  spoken  to 
me  first,  and  whose  name  was  Bathsheba  Smith  (one 
of  the  widows  of  Apostle  George  A.  Smith).  She  wore 
a  large  shiny  apron,  and  her  sleeves  were  tucked  up  above 
her  elbows.  She  looked  thoroughly  like  business. 

"  Another  woman  was  standing  beside  her  with  a  large 
wooden  spoon  and  a  cow's  horn  filled  with  green  olive 
oil.  This  woman  poured  the  oil  out  of  the  spoon 
into  Bathsheba' s  hand,  who  immediately  put  it  on 
my  head,  ears,  eyes,  mouth,  and  every  part  of 
my  person,  and  as  she  greased  me,  she  mut- 
tered a  kind  of  prayer  over  each  member  of  my 
body :  My  head,  that  I  might  have  a  knowledge  of 
the  truths  of  God  ;  my  eyes,  that  I  might  see  the  glories 
of  the  kingdom ;  my  mouth,  that  I  might  at  all  times 
speak  the  truth  ;  my  arms,  that  they  might  be  strong  in 
the  defense  of  the  gospel ;  my  bosom — and  here  1  must 
ask  my  readers  not  to  think  I  want  to  tell  this  part  of 


422 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


the  story,  but  I  do  want  people  to  know  the  truth,  and 
how  disgusting  and  indelicate  this  thing  is.  Mormon 
people  deny  many  of  these  things,  and  civilized  and  de- 
cent people  can  scarcely  realize  that  this  institution  is  as 
infamous  as  it  really  is,  but  I  solemnly  assert  that  these 
things  do  exist.  To  continue  :  My  bosom,  that  I  might 
nourish  the  children  whom  I  might  raise  by  my  husband, 

(I  was  not  then  mar- 
ried, but  expected  to 
be),  and  another  part 
of  my  body,  that  I 
might  raise  up  a  goodly 
seed,  that  they  might 
be  pillars  of  strength  to 
the  upbuilding  and 
strengthening  of  God's 
kingdom  upon  the  earth. 
And  so  she  got  down  to 
my  feet,  when  she 
hoped  they  might  be 
swift  in  the  paths  of 
righteousness  and  truth. 
* '  She  then  turned  me 
over  to  the  woman  who 
had  washed  me,  and 
who  whispered  my  new 
and  celestial  name  in 
called  up  in  the  morn- 
It  was  'Sarah/  I  felt 


THE  GARMENT. 

my  ear.    I  believe  I  am   to  be 
ing   of  the   resurrection  by  it. 


disappointed.  I  thought  I  should  have  received  a 
more  distinguished  name.  She  told  me  that  the  new  name 
must  never  be  spoken,  but  of  ten  thought  of  to  keep  away 
evil  spirits.  I  should  be  required  to  speak  it  once  that 
day,  but  she  would  tell  me  in  what  part  of  the  ceremony, 
and  that  I  should  never  again  have  to  speak  it. 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  423 

"She  then  told  me  to  put  on  my  garment.  This  is 
made  in  one  piece.  On  the  right  breast  is  a  square,  on 
the  left  a  compass,  in  the  centre  a  small  hole,  and  on  the 
knee  a  large  hole,  which  is  called  the  «  Stone.'  We  were 
told  that  as  long  as  we  kept  this  garment  on  no  harm  could 
befall  us,  and  that  when  we  changed  it  we  were  not  to 
take  it  all  off  at  once,  but  slip  out  a  limb  at  a  time 
and  immediately  dive  into  a  clean  one.  The  neck  was 
never  to  be  cut  low,  or  the  sleeves  short,  as  that  would 
be  patterning  after  the  fashion  of  the  Gentiles. 

"After  this  I  put  on  my  clothes,  and  in  my  stocking 
feet  waited  with  those  who  were  washed  and  anointed 
until  she  had  finished  the  remaining  two  or  three.  This 
done,  the  little  calico  curtains  (marked  A  and  B)  were 
drawn  aside  and  the  men  and  women  stood  revealed  to 
each  other.  The  men  looked  very  uncomfortable  and 
not  at  all  picturesque.  They  only  had  their  garments 
and  shirts  on,  and  they  really  did  seem  as  though  they 
were  ashamed  of  themselves,  as  well  they  might  be. 

"Joseph  F.  Smith  then  came  to  where  we  were  all 
waiting,  and  told  us  that  if  we  wanted  to  back  out,  now 
was  our  time,  because  we  should  not  be  able  to  do  so 
afterward,  and  that  we  were  bound  to  go  right  through. 
All  those  who  wanted  to  go  through  were  to  hold  up 
their  hands,  which  of  course  every  one  did,  believing 
that  all  the  good  and  holy  things  that  were  to  be  seen 
and  heard  in  the  ' House  of  the  Lord'  were  yet  to  come. 
He  then  told  us  that  if  ever  any  of  us  attempted  to  re- 
veal what  we  saw  and  heard  in  the  *  House '  our  memo- 
ries would  be  blighted,  and  we  should  be  everlastingly 
damned,  for  they  were  things  too  holy  to  be  spoken  of 
between  each  other  after  we  had  once  left  the  Endow- 
ment House.  We  were  then  told  to  be  very  quiet  and 
listen.  Joseph  P.  Smith  then  went  away. 


424  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

"  In  a  few  moments  we  heard  voices  talking  loudly  so 
that  the  people  could  hear  them  in  the  adjoining  room. 
(I  afterward  found  out  in  passing  through  that  it  was  the 
prayer  circle  room).  It  was  supposed  to  be  a  conversa- 
tion between  Elohim  (Head  God)  and  Jehovah.  The 
conversation  was  as  follows  : 

"Elohim  to  Jehovah:  'Well,  Jehovah,  I  think  we 
will  create  an  earth  ;  let  Michael  go  down  and  collect  all 
the  elements  together  and  found  one.' 

"Answer:  'Very  well,  O  Lord  God,  it  shall  be 
done.' 

"Then  calling  to  another  man,  we  could  hear  him  say : 
'  Michael,  go  down  and  collect  all  the  elements  together 
and  form  an  earth,  and  then  report  to  us  what  you  have 
done.' 

"  Answer  :     'Very  well,  O  Lord  God.' 

« '  The  man  they  called  Michael  then  left  the  prayer  circle 
room  and  came  through  the  room  they  called  the  World, 
into  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  door  of  which  was  shut  that 
faced  the  places  C  and  D,  where  we  were  standing  listen- 
ing and  waiting.  He  remained  there  a  second  or  two, 
and  everj^thing  was  quiet.  At  the  end  of  that  time  we 
heard  him  going  back  the  same  way,  to  where  Elohim 
and  Jehovah  were  waiting.  When  he  got  back  he  said  : 
'  I  have  collected  all  the  elements  together  and  founded 
an  earth  ;  what  would' st  thou  have  me  do  next? '  Using 
the  same  formula  every  time  they  sent  him  down  to  the 
world,  they  then  told  him  to  separate  the  land  from  the 
water,  light  from  darkness,  etc.,  and  so  they  went  regu- 
larly through  the  creation,  but  they  always  told  Michael 
to  come  up  and  report  what  he  had  done. 

"When  the  creation  was  supposed  to  be  finished, 
Michael  went  back  and  told  them  it  was  very  fair  and 
beautiful  to  look  upon.  Elohim  then  said  to  Jehovah 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  425 

that  they  had  better  go  down  and  have  a  look  at  it,  which 
they  did,  and  agreed  with  Michael  that  it  was  a  beautiful 
place  ;  that  it  seemed  a  pity  it  should  be  of  no  particular 
use,  but  thought  it  would  be  a  good  idea  to  create  man  to 
live  in  it  and  cultivate  the  things  it  might  produce. 

"  They  then  passed  out  of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  which 
was  supposed  to  have  been  newly  finished,  and,  shutting 
the  door  after  them,  came  to  where  we  were  standing. 
We  were  then  told  to  shut  our  eyes,. and  Jehovah  said  to 
Michael :  '  Give  me  a  handful  of  dust,  and  I  will  create 
man.'  We  were  then  told  to  open  our  eyes,  and  we  saw 
a  man  that  he  had  taken  from  the  crowd,  standing  beside 
Jehovah,  and  to  whom  Jehovah  said:  <I  will  call  thee 
Adam,  for  thou  shalt  be  the  father  of  all  mankind.' 
Jehovah  then  said  it  was  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone, 
so  he  would  create  a  woman  and  a  helpmeet  for  him. 
We  were  again  told  to  close  our  eyes,  and  Adam  was  re- 
quested to  goto  sleep,  which  he  obligingly  did.  Jehovah 
was  then  supposed  to  take  a  rib  from  Adam's  side  and 
form  Eve.  We  were  then  told  to  open  our  eyes  and  look 
upon  the  handiwork  of  the  Lord.  When  we  did,  we  saw 
a  woman  taken  from  among  the  crowd  who  was  standing 
by  Adam's  side.  Jehovah  said  he  would  call  the  woman 
Eve,  because  she  would  be  the  mother  of  all  mankind. 
The  door  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  was  then  opened,  and 
we  all  marched  in  with  our  bundles  (the  men  going  first, 
as  they  always  take  precedence),  and  we  ranged  ourselves 
round  the  room  on  benches.  The  four  sides  of  this*room 
are  painted  in  imitation  of  trees,  flowers,  birds,  wild 
beasts,  etc.  (The  artist  who  painted  the  room  was 
evidently  more  acquainted  with  whitewashing  than  paint- 
ing). The  ceiling  was  painted  blue,  dotted  over  with 
golden  stars ;  in  the  centre  of  it  was  the  sun ,  a  little 
farther  along  the  moon,  and  all  around  were  the  stars. 


426 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


In  each  corner  was  a  Masonic  emblem .  In  one  corner  was 
a  compass,  in  another  the  square  ;  in  the  remaining  two 
were  the  level  and  the  plumb.  On  the  east  side  of  the 
room,  next  the  door,  was  a  painted  apple  tree,  and  in  the 
northeast  part  of  the  room  was  a  small  wooden  altar. 

"  After  Ave  had  seated  ourselves,  Jehovah  told  Adam 
and  Eve  that  they  could  eat  of  every  tree  in  the  garden 
except  of  this  particular  apple  tree,  for  on  the  day  that 
they  ate  of  that  they  should  surely  die. 

"  He  then  took  his  de- 
parture, and  immediately 
after  in  came  a  very 
lively  gentleman,  dressed 
in  a  plain  black  morn- 
ing suit,  with  a  little 
apron  on,  a  most  fiend- 
ish expression  on  his  face 
and  joyfully  rubbing  his 
hands.  This  gentleman 
DEVIL'S  APRON.  was  supposed  to  be  'the 

Devil/  Certainly  his  appearance  made  the  supposition 
quite  easy  (by  the  by,  I  have  since  seen  that  same 
gentleman  administering  the  sacrament  in  the  Taber- 
nacle on  Sundays).  He  went  up  to  Eve  and  remarked 
that  it  was  a  very  beautiful  place,  and  that  the 
fruit  was  so  nice,  would  she  like  to  taste  one  of 
those  apples?  She  demurred  a  little,  and  said  she 
was  told  not  to,  and  therefore  must  not.  But  he  pre- 
tended to  pluck  one  of  the  painted  apples  and  give  it  to 
her,  and  she  pretended  to  eat  it.  He  then  told  her  to 
ask  Adam  to  have  some,  and  she  did.  Adam  objected 
strongly  to  tasting,  knowing  the  penalty,  but  Eve  even- 
tually overcame  his  scruples,  saying :  '  Oh,  my  dear, 
they're  so  nice,  you  haven't  any  idea ;  and  that  nice  old 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY. 


427 


gentleman  here  (pointing  to  the  Devil)  says  that  he  ean 
recommened  them ,  and  you  need  not  be  afraid  of  what 
Jehovah  says.' 

4 'Adam  consented,  and 
immediately  after  he  said, 
'  Oh,  what  have  I  done, 
and  how  foolish  I  was 
to  listen  to  you.'  He 
then  declared  that  he 
u  could  see  himself,  and  that 
they  had  no  clothes  on, 
and  they  must  sew  some 

MEN  AND  WOMEN'S  APRON.  fio-  leaves   together.     Ev- 

er? o 

ery  one  then  made  a  dive  for  his  apron  out  of 
the  little  bundles.  This  apron  is  a  square  half -yard 
of  green  silk  with  nine  fig  leaves  worked  on  it  -in 
brown  sewing-silk.  A  voice  was  then  heard  calling 
for  Adam,  who  pretended  to  hide,  when  in  came  Jehovah. 
He  gave  Adam  a  good 
scolding,  but  finally  told 
him  that  he  would  give 
him  certain  instructions, 
whereby  he  would  have  a 
chance  to  regain  the  pres- 
ence of  his  Father  and 
God  after  he  was  driven 
out  into  the  world. 
These  instructions  con- 
sisted of  grips,  etc.,  and 
the  garments  he  wore 


MAN'S  CAP. 


WOMAN'S  CAP  AND  MOCCASIN. 


428  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

would  protect  him  from  all  evil.  (Mormons  say  of 
these  garments  that  the  pattern  was  revealed  direct  from 
heaven  to  Joseph  Smith,  and  are  the  same  as  were  orig- 
inally worn  by  Adam . ) 

"  They  then  put  on  their  caps  and  moccasins,  the 
women's  cap  being  made  of  Swiss  muslin  ;  it  is  one 
yard  square,  rounded  at  one  corner  to  fit  the  head,  and 
there  are  strings  on  it  which  tie  under  the  chin.  The  moc- 
casins are  made  of  linen  or  calico.  The  men's  caps  are 
made  exactly  like  those  of  pastry  cooks,  with  a  bow  on 
the  right  side.  I  should  here  mention,  before  I  go  fur- 
ther, that  Bathsheba  Smith  and  one  of  the  priests  enacted 
the  parts  of  Adam  and  Eve,  and  so  stood  sponsors  for 
the  rest  of  us,  who  were  individually  supposed  to  be 
Adams  and  Eves. 

« '  They  then  proceeded  to  give  us  the  first  grip  of  the 
Aaronic  or  Lesser  Priesthood ,  which  consists  in  putting  the 
thumb  on  the  knuckle  of  the  index  finger  and  clasping  the 
hands  round.  We  were  then  made  to  swear '  To  obey  the 
laws  of  the  Mormon  Church  and  all  they  enjoin,  in  pref- 
erence to  those  of  the  United  States.'  The  penalty  for 
revealing  this  grip  and  oath,  is  that  you  will  have  your 
throat  cut  from  ear  to  ear,  your  tongue  torn  from  your 
mouth  and  your  body  dismembered  ;  the  sign  of  the  pen- 
alty is  drawing  the  hand,  with  the  thumb  pointing  toward 
the  throat,  sharply  across  and  bringing  the  arm  to  the 
level  of  the  square  and  with  the  hand  upraised  to  heaven, 
swearing  to  abide  by  the  same. 

"  We  were  then  driven  out  of  this  into  the  room  called 
the  World,  where  there  were  three  men  standing  at  a 
small  altar  on  the  east  side  of  the  room,  who  were  sup- 
posed to  represent  Peter,  James  and  John,  Peter  stand- 
ing in  the  centre.  He  was  supposed  to  have  the  keys  of 
heaven.  Men  representing  (or  trying  to)  the  different 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY. 


429 


religious  sects  then  came  in  and  presented  their  views, 
and  said  they  wanted  to  try  and  save  these  fallen  child- 
ren. In  doing  this  they  could  not  refrain  from  exagger- 
ating and  coarsely  satirizing  the  different  sects  they  rep- 
resented. The  Quaker  advocated  his  non-resistance  doc- 
trine. The  Methodist  gave  a  graphic  but  not  very  re- 


THE  CEREMONY  OF  BLOOD  ATONEMENT. 

fined  description  of  the  future  torments  of  those  who  did 
not  take  his  road  to  heaven.  The  Presbyterian  gave  his 
belief  in  foreordination  and  election  in  the  very  terse 
lines, — 

"  *  You  can  if  you  can't; 
If  you  will  you  won't ; 
You'll  be  damned  if  you  do  ; 
You'll  be  damned  if  you  don't/ 

The  Baptist  expatiated  upon  the  virtues  of  immersion 
and  close  communion,  and  insisted  upon  predestination 


430  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

as  the  principal  basis  of  religion  ;  the  Catholic  called  for 
observances  of  fasts  and  prayers  to  Hie  Virgin  Mary. 
Each  grew  more  clamorous  in  recommending  his  special 
creed,  and  the  discussion  waxed  fast  and  furious,  even  the 
peaceful  Quaker  shouting  his  '  good  will  to  men'  with  a 
red  face,  an  angry  voice,  and  excited  manner,  when  Satan 
entered,  filled  with  delight  at  the  disturbance,  and  urging 
them  on  to  renewed  contention. 

44  Then  the  apostles  began  to  visit  the  earth,  and  com- 
fort its  afflicted  tenants  with  plans  of  the  true,  revealed 
religion  that  was  to  be  their  salvation.  They  put  the 
devil  to  flight,  and  the  representatives  of  the  '  false  re- 
ligions '  cowered  and  shrank  away  before  the  truth  which 
they  brought. 

"Previous  to  their  coming  in,  however,  Peter  had 
presented  to  us  the  gospel  of  Christ — at  least  he 
told  us  that  Christ  had  come  to  die  for  the  original  sin, 
but  that  we  had  to  work  out  our  own  salvation,  and  that 
in  the  last  days  a  prophet  should  be  raised  up  to  save  all 
those  that  would  believe  in  his  divine  mission  ;  conse- 
quently these  different  representatives  were  told  that 
their  doctrines  did  not  suit  the  people,  that  there  was 
something  wanting  in  their  faith,  and  they  could  go. 
Then  the  Devil  came  in  and  tried  to  allure  the  people, 
and  bustling  up  to  the  altar,  Peter  said  to  him  :  '  Hallo, 
Mr.  Devil,  how  do  you  do  to-day !  It's  a  very  fine  day 
isn't  it?  What  have  you  come  after?'  The  Devil  re- 
plied that  he  didn't  seem  to  take  to  any  of  these  so- 
called  Christian  religions,  why  didn't  they  quit  bothering 
after  anything  of  that  kind,  and  live  a.  life  of  pleasure, 
etc.  He  was  told  to  go  and  that  quickly. 

"Peter  then  gave  the  second  grip  of  Hie  Aaronic  or 
Lesser  Priesthood,  which  consists  of  putting  the  thumb 
between  the  knuckles  of  the  index  and  second  fingers  and 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY. 


431 


clasping  the  hand  around.  The  penalty  for  revealing 
this  is  to  be  sawn  asunder,  and  our  members  cast  into  the 
sea.  The  sign  of  the  penalty  was  drawing  the  hand 
sharply  across  the  middle  of  the  body.  To  receive  that 
grip  we  had  to  put  on  our  robes,  which  consisted  of  a 
long  straight  piece  of  cloth  reaching  to  our  feet,  doubled 
over  and  gathered  very  full  on  the  shoulder  and  around 
the  waist.  There  was 
also  a  long  narrow  piece 
of  cloth  tied  around  the 
waist  called  'the  sash.' 
It  was  placed  on  the 
right  shoulder  to  receive 
the  grip.  The  people 
wear  their  aprons  over  it. 
The  men  then  took  the 
oath  of  chastity  and  the 
women  the  same ;  they 
do  not  consider  polyga- 
my at  all  unchaste,  but 
say  that  it  was  a  heaven 
ordained  law,  and  that  a 
man  to  be  exalted  in  the 
world  to  come  must  have 
m  ore  than  one  wife .  The 

women    then    took    the  THE  ROBE. 

oath  of  obedience  to  their  husbands,  having  to  look 
up  to  them  as  their  gods.  It  is  not  possible  for  a 
woman  to  go  to  Christ,  except  through  her  husband. 

"Then  a  man  came  in  and  said  that  the  Gospel  (which 
during  those  few  minutes'  intervals  had  lain  dormant  for 
1,800  years)  had  been  again  restored  to  earth,  and  that 
an  angel  had  revealed  it  to  a  young  boy  named  Joseph 
Smith,  and  that  all  the  gifts,  blessings  and  prophecies  of 


432  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

old  had  been  restored  with  it,  and  this  last  revelation  was 
to  be  called  the  Latter-day  Dispensation.  The  priests 
pretended  joyfully  to  accept  this,  and  said  it  was  the 
very  thing  they  were  in  search  of,  nothing  else  having 
had  the  power  to  satisfy  them. 

4 '  They  then  proceeded  to  give  us  the  first  grip  of  the 
Melchizedek  or  Higher  Priesthood,  which  is  said  to  be 
the  same  that  Christ  held.  The  thumb  is  placed  on  the 
knuckle  of  the  index  finger  and  straight  along  the  palm 
of  the  hand,  while  the  lower  part  of  the  hand  is  clasped 
with  the  remaining  fingers.  The  robe  for  this  grip  was 
changed  from  the  right  to  the  left  shoulder.  We  were 
then  made  to  swear  to  avenge  the  death  of  Joseph  Smith, 
the  martyr,  together  with  that  of  his  brother,  Hyrum, 
on  this  American  nation,  and  that  we  would  teach  our 
children  and  children's  children  to  do  so.  The  penalty 
for  this  grip  and  oath  was  disembowelnient. 

44  We  were  then  marched  into  the  northeast  room  (the 
men,  of  course,  always  going  first)  designated  the  prayer 
circle  room.  We  were  here  made  to  take  an  oath  of 
obedience  to  the  Mormon  priesthood. 

' «  And  now  the  highest  or  grand  grip  of  the  Melchizedek 
Priesthood  was  given.  We  clasped  each  other  round  the 
hand  with  the  point  of  the  index  finger  resting  on  the 
wrist  and  the  little  fingers  firmly  linked  together.  The 
place  on  the  wrist  where  the  index  finger  points  is  sup- 
posed to  be  the  place  where  Christ  was  nailed  to  the  cross, 
but  they  tore  out  and  He  had  to  be  nailed  again,  and  so 
you  place  your  second  finger  beside  the  index  on  the 
wrist ;  it  is  called  tehe  sure  sign  of  the  nail,  and  if  the 
grip  is  properly  given,  it  is  very  hard  to  pull  apart.  The 
robe  was  changed  from  the  left  to  the  right  shoulder  to 
receive  this  grip. 

"The   men   then   formed   a   circle   around  the  altar, 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY. 


433 


linking  their  arms  straight  across  and  placing  their  hands 
on  one  another's  shoulders.  The  priest  knelt  at  the  altar 
and  took  hold  of  ome  of  the  men's  hands  and  prayed.  He 
told  us  that  the  electric  current  of  prayer  passed  through 
the  circle,  and  that  was  the  most  efficacious  kind  of  prayer. 
The  women  stood  outside  the  circle  with  their  veils 
covering  their  faces,  the  only  time  throughout  the  cere- 
mony that  they  did  so. 


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DIAGRAM    OF   ENDOWMENT   HOUSE — SECOND    FLOOR. 

"  The  prayer  over,  they  all  trooped  up  the  staircase  on 
the  north  side  of  the  house,  into  the  room  called  the 
Instruction  Room,  where  the  people  sat  down  on  benches 
on  the  west  side  of  the  room.  Facing  them  about  mid- 
way between  floor  and  ceiling  was  a  wooden  beam,  that 
went  across  the  room  from  north  to  south,  and  from 
which  was  suspended  a  dirty-looking  piece  of  what  was 
onee  white  calico.  This  was  called  'the  veil,'  and  is 
28 


434  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

supposed  to   be  in  imitation   of   the  one   in  Solomon's 
Temple.     On  this  veil  are  marks  like  those  on  the  gar- 
ment,  together    with  extra  holes  for  putting  the  arms 
.through,  and  a  hole  at  the  top  to  speak  through.     But 
before  approaching  the  veil  we  received  a  general  outline 
of  the  instructions  that  had  been  given  us  down  stairs .    This 
over,  the  priest  took  a  man  to  the  veil  to  one  of  the 
openings  (marked  1),  where  he  knocked  with  a  small 
wooden  mallet  that  hung   on  the  wooden  support.     A 
voice  on  the  other  side  of  the  veil  (it  was  supposed  to  be 
Peter's)  asked  who  was  there,  when  the  priest  answering 
for  the  man  said  :     '  Adam,  having  been  faithful,  desires 
to  enter.'     The  priest  then  led  the  man  up  to  the  west 
side  of  the  veil,  where  he  had  to  put  his  hands  through 
and  clasp  the  man,  or  Peter  (to  whom  he  whispered  his 
new  name,  and  the  only  one  he  ever  tells,  for  they  must 
never  tell  their  celestial  names  to  their  wives,  although 
the  wives  must  tell  theirs  to  their  husbands),  through  the 
holes  in  the  veil.     He  was  then  allowed  to  go  through  to 
the  other  side,  which  was  supposed  to  be  heaven,  and 
this  is  where  a  strong  imagination  might  be  of  some  use, 
for  anything  more  unlike  heaven  I  cannot  conceive.     The 
man  having  got  through,  he  went  to  the  opening  (No.  2) 
and  told  the  gatekeeper  to  call  for  the  woman  he  was 
about  to  marry,  telling  him  her  name.     She  then  stepped 
up  to  the  veil  where  the  marks  '  B'  are.     They  were  un- 
able to  see  each  other,  but  put  their  hands  through  the 
openings,  one  of  their  hands  on  each  other's  shoulder  and 
the  other  around  the  waist.     (The  marks  on  the  plan  at 
the  sides  are  for  the  arms,  and  all  the  marks  in  the  plan 
on  the  veil  are    exactly  as  they  are  in  the  Endowment 
House  ;  the  top  round  mark  is  the  place  where  they  spoke 
through,  and  the  square,  compass  and  stone  correspond 
with  the  marks  on  the  garment ;  the  two  bottom  marks 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  435 

were  where  the  feet  are  put  through).  With  the  arms 
so  fixed,  the  knees  were  placed  within  each  other,  the 
feet  of  course  being  the  same,  the  woman's  given  name 
was  then  whispered  through  the  veil,  then  her  new  and 
celestial  name,  then  the  priestess  who  stood  by  to  in- 
struct the  women  told  them  to  repeat  after  her  a  most 
disgusting  formula  or  oath.  I  cannot  remember  it  all 
thoroughly,  but  it  had  direct  reference  to  the  belly  and 
the  thighs,  after  which  the  secrets  of  the  Melchizedek 
Priesthood  were  given  through  the  veil. 

"  They  then  released  their  hold  of  each  other,  and  the 
priestess,  taking  the  women  to  opening  No.  2,  knocked 
the  same  as  they  did  at  the  men's  entrance,  and  the  gate- 
keeper having  asked  'Who  is  there?'  the  priestess  re- 
plied, 'Eve,  having  been  faithful  in  all  things,  desires  to 
enter.'  Eve  was  accordingly  ushered  into  heaven. 

"Before  I  go  farther,  I  must  tell  how  they  believe  the 
entrance  into  heaven  is  to  be  gained  on  the  morning  of 
the  resurrection.  Peter  will  call  up  the  men  and  women, 
(for  it  is  not  possible  for  a  woman  to  be  resurrected,  exalt- 
ed or  made  a  queen  in  heaven,  unless  some  man  takes 
pity  on  her  and  raises  her.)  If  the  marks  on  the  gar- 
ment are  found  to  correspond  with  those  on  the  veil 
(the  dead  are  buried  in  the  whole  paraphernalia),  and  if 
you  can  give  the  grips,  tokens,  and  your  new  name,  and 
are  dressed  properly  in  your  robes,  then  you  have  a  sure 
permit  to  heaven,  and  will  pass  by  the  angels  (whom 
they  suppose  to  be  only  ministering  servants)  to  a  more 
exalted  glory  ;  the  more  wives  they  have,  they  think,  the 
higher  their  glory  will  be. 

"To  resume:  After  we  got  through,  we  saw  Joseph 
F.  Smith  sitting  at  a  table  recording  the  names  of  those 
who  were  candidates  for  marriage.  He  wrote  the  names 
in  a  book  (the  existence  of  which  marriage  register  this 


436  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

truthful  apostle  has  since  denied,  so  that  a  polygamous 
marriage  might  not  be  found  out),  and  then  he  wrote  the 
two  names  on  a  slip  of  paper,  to  be  taken  into  the  seal- 
ing room  to  the  .officiating  priest,  so  that  he  might  know 
whom  he  was  marrying.  After  having  given  this  slip  of 
paper  to  the  priest  (Daniel  II .  Wells),  we  knelt  at  a  lit- 
tle wooden  altar  (they  are  all  alike  in  the  Endowment 
House ) .  He  then  asks  the  man  if  he  is  willing  to  take 
the  woman  to  wife,  and  the  woman  if  she  is  willing  to 
take  him  for  a  husband.  They  both  having  answered, 
yes,  he  tells  the  man  that  he  must  look  to  God,  but  the 
woman  must  look  to  her  husband  as  her  god,  for  if  he 
lives  in  his  religion,  the  spirit  of  God  will  be  in  him,  and 
she  must  therefore  yield  him  unquestioning  obedience, 
for  he  is  as  a  god  unto  her,  and  then  concludes  by  say- 
ing that  he  having  authority  from  on  high,  to  bind  and 
loose  here  upon  earth,  and  whatsoever  he  binds  here 
shall  be  bound  in  heaven,  seals  the  man  and  woman  for 
time  and  all  eternity. 

"He  then  tells  the  man  and  woman  to  kiss  each  other 
across  the  altar,  the  man  kneeling  on  the  north  side  and 
the  woman  on  the  south,  and  so  it  is  finished.  Some- 
times they  have  witnesses,  sometimes  not ;  if  they  think 
any  trouble  may  arise  from  a  marriage,  or  that  the 
woman  is  inclined  to  be  a  little  perverse,  they  have  no 
witnesses,  neither  do  they  give  marriage  certificates,  and 
if  occasion  requires  it,  and  it  is  to  shield  any  of  their 
polygamous  brethren  from  being  found  out,  they  will 
positively  swear  that  they  did  not  perform  any  marriage 
ceremony  at  all,  so  that  the  women  in  this  Church  have 
but  a  poor  outlook  for  being  considered  honorable  wives. 

' '  When  the  marriage  ceremony  was  over  we  came  out 
of  the  '  sealing  room '  and  I  crossed  «  Heaven '  into  the 
ladies'  dressing  room,  where,  after  having  dressed  and  my 


SALT    LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  437 

husband  paid  the  fees,  we  took  our  departure,  together 
with  the  'Holy  Spirit.' 

"  It  was  half -past  three,  p.  M.,  when  we  left,  I  having 
gone  there  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning.  You  can 
probably  imagine  how  fatigued  one  feels,  after  listening 
patiently  all  the  time  to  their  incessant  talking.  Certainly 
at  the  end  of  the  time  one  feels  more  like  taking  nour- 
ishment than  listening  to  the  promptings  of  the  <  Holy 
Spirit.'  I  should,  perhaps,  have  remarked  before,  that 
the  priests,  when  going  through  the  House,  wear  their  or- 
dinary clothing,  and  come  straight  into  the  '  House  of 
the  Lord'  with  their  dirty  top-boots  on,  as  though  they 
had  just  come  off  a  farm,  Avhile  we  poor  sinners  were 
obliged  to  walk  in  our  stocking  feet  lest  the  floor  should 
be  defiled. 

"  The  little  addition  attached  to  the  main  building  on 
the  west  side  and  in  which  is  the  font,  is  used  for  re- 
baptizing  people  before  they  can  be  allowed  to  go  through 
the  House,  and  is  quite  a  separate  affair  from  the  washing 
and  anointing ;  people  are  generally  baptized  a  day  or 
two  before  they  go  through  the  House.  I  was  baptized 
the  night  before.  On  this  same  evening  I  was  told  that 
as  I  was  going  through  the  '  House  of  the  Lord '  on  the 
following  day,  I  must  pay  the  very  strictest  attention  to 
everything  I  should  see  and  hear,  as  it  would  be  for  my 
benefit  hereafter.  I  was  obedient  in  that  respect,  for  I 
remember  everything  that  happened  as  vividly  as  though 
it  were  yesterday,  and  if  it  has  not  been  for  my  benefit, 
I  hope  that  this  article  may  prove  of  some  use  in  warn- 
ing and  enlightening  people,  as  to  that  most  horrid  blas- 
phemy, jargon  and  mummery  that  goes  on  in  that  most 
sacred  'House  of  the  Lord.' 

"MRS.  G.  S.  R -." 

The  name  under  which  this  lady  is  now  recognized  is 


438  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

not  given,  for  very  obvious  reasons.  She  succeeded 
thoroughly  in  not  only  vindicating  her  honor,  but  also  in 
exposing  the  secret  rites  and  abominations  of  Mormon- 
ism.  Upon  her  statements,  which  have  been  repeatedly 
verified  by  others  who  have  passed  through  the  Endowment 
House,  Congress  has  relied  for  information  that  would 
lead  to  the  adoption  of  some  national  measure  for  the 
suppression  of  pol3rgamy  and  protection  of 'those  threat- 
ened with  Mormon  vengeance. 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

PROMISCUOUS      POLYGAMY HORRIBLE      SENSUALITY      AND 

BLOOD  ATONEMENT. 

BRIGHAM  YOUNG  began  to  increase  his  domestic  house- 
hold directly  after  planting  himself  firmly  in  Utah,  and 
did  not  cease  these  uxorious  aspirations  until  he  had  a 
stock  of  wives  on  hand  capable  of  satiating  his  carnal 
gluttony.  Of  course  there  were  constant,  interminable 
bickerings  among  his  nineteen  spouses,  and  it  became 
necessary  for  him  to  portion  them  off  in  a  number  of 
separate  dwellings.  But  as  he  had  set  an  example  of 
plethoric  marriages,  the  male  members  of  his  flock,  strong 
in  their  loins,  were  quick  to  do  likewise.  This  wholesale 
plurality  of  wives  was  followed  by  evils  which,  in  dia- 
bolical depravity,  causes  every  heart  to  grow  sick  in  con- 
templating them. 

By  the  oaths  administered  in  the  Endowment  House, 
wives  held  their  very  existence  through  the  sufferance  of 
their  husbands,  and  were,  of  course,  subjected  not 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  439 

to  indignities  but  punished  with  death  whenever  their 
enraged  lords  became  tempered  for  the  act.  It  must 
never  be  considered  that  women  countenance  polygamy 
with  a  spirit  of  pleasurable  resignation  ;  they  accept  it  in 
the  same  manner  that  an  Indian  mother  casts  her  off- 
spring into  the  Ganges,  because  they  are  led  to  believe 
that  it  is  an  ordinance  direct  from  God.  Many  sincerely 
believe  that  in  proportion  to  their  sufferings  on  this  earth 
will  their  pleasures  be  in  Paradise.  Others,  more  sensi- 
ble, are  coerced  into  bearing  the  ills  of  polygamy,  while 
yet  others,  unsubmissive,  are  "blood-atoned" — atro- 
ciously murdered  for  their  "stiff-neckedness,"  as  it  is 
pronounced.  In  a  discourse  delivered  by  Orson  Pratt  in 
Salt  Lake  City,  October  7,  1869,  he  made  use  of  the  fol- 
lowing language,  which  shows  at  least  one  of  the  means 
used  to  make  women  accept  polygamy  as  a  divine  ordi- 
nance. 

I  am  talking,  to-day,  to  Latter-day  Saints ;  I  am  not  reasoning 
with  unbelievers.  If  I  were  I  should  appeal  more  fully  to  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  to  bring  in  arguments  and  testimonies  to 
prove  the  divine  authenticity  of  polygamic  marriages.  Perhaps  I 
may  touch  upon  this  point  for  a  few  moments,  for  the  benefit  of 
strangers,  should  there  be  any  in  our  midst.  Let  me  say,  then, 
that  God's  people,  under  every  dispensation  since  the  creation  of 
the  world,  have,  generally,  been  polygamists.  I  say  this  for  the 
benefit  of  strangers.  According  to  the  good  old  book,  called  the 
Bible,  when  God  saw  proper  to  call  out  Abraham  from  all  the 
heathen  nations,  and  made  him  a  great  man  in  the  world,  He  saw 
proper,  also,  to  make  him  a  polygamist,  and  approbated  him  in 
taking  unto  himself  more  wives  than  one.  Was  it  wrong  in 
Abraham  to  do  this  thing  ?  If  it  were,  when  did  God  reprove  him 
for  so  doing  ?  When  did  He  ever  reproach  Jacob  for  doing  the 
same  thing  ?  Who  can  find  the  record  in  the  lids  of  the  Bible  of 
God  reproving  Abraham,  as  being  a  sinner,  and  having  commit- 
ted a  crime  in  taking  to  himself  two  living  wives  ?  No  such  thing 
is  recorded.  He  was  just  as  much  blessed  after  doing  this  thing 
as  before,  and  more  so,  for  God  promised  blessings  upon  the  is- 
sue of  Abraham  by  his  second  wife  the  same  as  that  of  the  first 
wife,  providing  he  was  equally  faithful.  This  was  a  proviso  ia 
every  case. 


440  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

When  we  come  down  to  Jacob,  the  Lord  permitted  him  to  take 
four  wives.  They  are  so  called  in  Holy  Writ.  They  are  not  de- 
nominated prostitutes,  neither  are  they  called  concubines,  but  they 
are  called  wives,  legal  wives  ;  and  to  show  that  God  approved  of 
the  course  of  Jacob  in  taking  these  wives,  he  blessed  them  abun- 
dantly, and  hearkened  to  the  prayer  of  the  second  wife  just  the 
same  as  to  the  first.  Rachel  was  the  second  wife  of  Jacob,  and 
our  great  mother,  for  you  know  that  many  of  the  Latter-day 
Saints  by  revelation  know  themselves  to  be  the  descendants  of 
Joseph,  and  he  was  the  son  of  Rachel,  the  second  wife  of  Jacob. 
God  in  a  peculiar  manner  blessed  the  posterity  of  this  second 
wife.  Instead  of  condemning  the  old  patriarch,  he  ordained  that 
Joseph,  the  first-born  of  this  second  wife,  should  be  consider- 
ed the  first-born  of  all  the  twelve  tribes,  and  into  his  hands 
was  given  the  double  birthright,  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
ancients.  And  yet  he  was  the  offspring  of  plurality — of  the  second 
wife  of  Jacob.  Of  course,  if  Reuben,  who  was  indeed  the  first- 
born unto  Jacob,  had  conducted  himself  properly,  he  might  have 
retained  the  birthright  and  the  great  inheritance ;  but  he  lost  that 
through  his  transgression,  and  it  was  given  to  a  polygamic  child, 
who  had  the  privilege  of  inheriting  the  blessing  to  the  utmost 
bounds  of  the  everlasting  hills;  the  great  continent  of  North  and 
South  America  was  conferred  upon  him.  Another  proof  that  God 
did  not  disapprove  of  a  man  having  more  wives  than  one  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  Rachel,  after  she  had  been  a  long  time  bar- 
ren, prayed  to  the  Lord  to  give  her  seed.  The  Lord  hearkened 
to  her  cry  and  granted  her  prayer ;  and  when  she  received  seed 
from  the  Lord  by  her  polyganric  husband,  she  exclaimed :  "  The 
Lord  hath  hearkened  unto  me  and  hath  answered  my  prayer." 
Now,  do  you  think  the  Lord  would  have  done  this  if  He  had  con- 
sidered polygamy  a  crime  ?  Would  He  have  hearkened  to  the 
prayer  of  this  woman  if  Jacob  had  been  living  with  her  in  adultery  ? 
And  he  certainly  was  doing  so  if  the  ideas  of  this  generation  are 
correct. 

Again,  what  says  the  Lord,  in  the  days  of  Moses,  under  another 
dispensation  ?  We  have  seen  that  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  Isaac 
and  Jacob,  he  approved  of  polygamy  and  blessed  his  servants 
who  practiced  it,  and  also  their  wives  and  children.  Naw,  let  us 
come  down  to  the  days  of  Moses.  We  read  that,  on  a  certain 
occasion,  the  sister  of  Moses,  Miriam,  and  certain  others  in  the 
great  congregation  of  Israel,  got  very  jealous.  What  were  they 
jealous  about?  About  the  Ethiopian  woman  that  Moses  had 
taken  to  wife,  in  addition  to  the  daughter  of  Jethro,  whom  he  had 
taken  before  in  the  land  of  Midian.  How  dare  the  great  law- 
giver, after  having  committed,  according  to  th£  ideas  of  the  pres- 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  441 

ent  generation,  a  great  crime,  show  his  face  on  Mount  Sinai  when 
it  was  clothed  with  the  glory  of  the  God  of  Israel  ?  But  what 
did  the  Lord  do  in  the  case  of  Miriam,  for  finding  fault  with  her 
brother  Moses  ?  Instead  of  saying,  "  You  are  right,  Miriam,  he 
has  committed  a  great  crime,  and  no  matter  how  much  you  speak 
against  him,"  he  smote  her  with  a  leprosy  the  very  moment  she 
began  to  complain,  and  she  was  considered  unclean  for  a  certain 
number  of  days.  Here  the  Lord  manifested,  by  the  display  of  a 
signal  judgment,  that  he  disapproved  of  anyone  speaking  against 
his  servants  for  taking  more  wives  than  one,  because  it  may  not 
happen  to  suit  their  notion  of  things. 

I  make  these  remarks  and  wish  to  apply  them  to  fault-finders 
against  plural  marriages  in  our  day.  Are  there  any  Miriams  in 
our  congregation  to-day,  any  of  those  who,  professing  to  belong 
to  the  Israel  of  the  latter-days,  sometimes  find  fault  with  the  man 
of  God  standing  at  their  head,  because  he  not  only  believes  in 
but  practices  this  divine  institution  of  the  ancients?  If  there  be 
such  in  our  midst,  I  say,  remember  Miriam,  the  very  next  time 
you  begin  to  talk  with  your  neighboring  women,  or  anybody  else 
against  this  holy  principle.  Remember  the  awful  curse  and 
judgment  that  fell  on  the  sister  of  Moses  when  she  did  the  same 
thing,  and  then  fear  and  tremble  before  God,  lest  he,  in  his  wrath, 
may  swear  that  you  shall  not  enjoy  the  blessings  ordained  for 
those  who  inherit  the  highest  degree  of  glory. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

There  are  some  Latter-day  Saints  who,  perhaps,  have  not 
searched  these  things  as  they  ought,  hence  we  occasionally  find 
some  who  will  say  that  God  suffered  these  things  to  be.  I  will 
go  further,  and  say  that  he  commanded  them,  and  he  pronounced 
a  curse,  to  which  all  the  people  had  to  say  amen,  if  they  did  not 

fulfil  the  commandment. 

******* 

It  is  no  matter,  according  to  the  Constitution,  whether  we  be- 
lieve in  the  patriarchal  parts  of  the  Bible,  in  the  Mosaic,  or  in  the 
Christian  part ;  whether  we  believe  in  one-half,  two-thirds,  or  in 
the  whole  of  it,  that  is  nobody's  business.  The  Constitution 
never  granted  power  to  Congress  to  prescribe  what  part  of  the 
Bible  any  people  should  believe  in  or  reject ;  it  never  intended 
any  such  thing. 

We  now  come  to  a  consideration  of  this  most  impious 
phase  of  Mormonism. 

Joe  Smith  planted  the  seed  and  reaped  the  first  harvest 
of  outraged  chastity,  for  he  was  the  first  to  teach  and 
practice  a  subordination  of  female  virtue  to  the  lusts  of 


442  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

himself  and  constituent  priesthood.  At  his  death  the 
mantle  of  defilement  fell  upon  Brigham  Young,  who  was 
a  worthy  successor  to  propagate  the  lustful  infamies 
which  have  ever  been  the  chief  corner-stone  of  Mormon- 
ism.  Not  alone  did  he  give  a  new  law,  laid  to  the  crea- 
tion of  God  and  Joe  Smith,  establishing  polygamy,  but 
he  also  had  the  audacity  to  enjoin  such  a  demoralizing, 
beastly  ordinance  ;  and,  to  make  the  iniquity  yet  more 
impious,  he  threatened  to  excommunicate  all  wives  who 
objected  to  their  husbands  going  into  polygamy.  Brig- 
ham  Young  had  been  playing  the  part  of  husband  to  a 
plurality  of  women  before  leaving  Nauvoo,  but  they  were 
called  spiritual  wives  who  had  other  husbands ;  it  is 
stated  that  no  less  than  fifty-three  women  were  spiritually 
sealed  to  him  in  Illinois. 

When  the  first  proclamation  of  Joseph  Smith's  pre- 
tended revelation  was  made,  prescribing  polygamy,  many 
of  the  sect  apostatized,  and  a  body  of  these  recusants 
re-established  their  religion  under  the  title  of  Josephites, 
rejecting  the  revelation  as  a  creation  of  Brigham's,  and 
claiming  heirship  with  Joe  Smith  by  succession.  This 
sect  has  a  strong  following  in  Utah,  and  in  December, 
1881,  dedicated  a  fine  church  in  Salt  Lake  to  their  wor- 
ship, which  is  Mormonism,  but  anti-polygamy. 

Notwithstanding  the  schism  created  by  Brigham's 
plural  wife  canon,  his  followers  increased  even  more  rap- 
idly than  before,  for  reasons  which  appear  patent  to  all 
who  can  comprehend  a  preponderance  of  human  nature. 
Year  after  year  the  practice  became  more  general  and 
flagitious  until,  in  1856,  polygamy  degenerated  into  in- 
cestuous marriage.  Hundreds  of  little  girls,  ranging  in 
age  from  twelve  to  fifteen  years,  were  espoused  by  libid- 
inous monsters  and  subjected  to  purposes  so  base  that  hu- 
manity recoils  at  the  bare  mention  of  them  ;  daughters  were 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  443 

traded  openTy  to  Mormon  reprobates,  and  hundreds  of 
instances  occurred  where  men  took  the  whole  femaie  por- 
tion of  a  family  to  wife,  including  mothers  and  daughters 
alike ;  and  not  alone  this,  for  there  are  many  instances 
where  fathers  had  their  own  daughters  sealed  to  them, 
and  brothers  espoused  their  own  sisters ;  this  most 
damnable  incest  was  defended  by  citing  sacred  history  as 
their  example,  where  Abraham  took  his  half-sister,  Sarah, 
to  wife,  and  Lot  raised  up  a  family  by  his  own  daughters. 
To  add  still  more  to  the  crimes  of  these  Mormon  pal- 


TOO  NUMEROUS  FOR  COMFORT. 

liards,  a  divorce  law  was  made  operative  by  which  wives 
could  be  put  away  upon  the  simplest  pretexts,  which 
amounted  to  no  more  than  an  expressed  desire  to  sever 
the  marital  relation  ;  thus  women  were  kept  with  no  more 
regard  for  domesticity  than  is  recognized  among  beasts, 
each  female  playing  her  part  to  scores  of  lustful  males. 

But  as  all  excess  produces  satiation  and  disgust,  so  this 
monstrous  promiscuity  at  length  became  partly  abated, 
though  the  principles  which  called  it  into  exercise  have 
never  been  disavowed 'by  those  who  embraced  it.  The 


444  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

teachings  and  defences,  enjoining  a  plurality  of  wives, 
briefly  stated,  may  be  expressed  as  follows  : 

Polygamy  is  not,  as  recusant  Mormons  assert,  a  mere 
addition  by  Brigham  Young  to  the  original  faith  ;  it  is  -a 
necessary  and  logical  outgrowth  of  the  system.  If 
Mormonism  be  true,  then  polygamy  is  right;  for  "pre- 
existence  of  the  soul,"  "progression  of  the  gods,"  and 
all  other  peculiarities  of  the  system,  depend  by  a  thou- 
sand combinations  and  inter-relations  upon  the  plurality 
system.  A  man's  or  woman's  glory  in  eternity  is  to  de- 
pend upon  the  size  of  the  family ;  for  a  woman  to  re- 
main childless  is  a  sin  and  a  calamity,  and  she  cannot  se- 
cure "  exaltation"  as  the  wife  of  a  Gentile  or  an  apost- 
tate  ;  her  husband's  rank  in  eternity  must  greatly  depend 
upon  the  number  of  his  wives,  and  she  will  share  in  that 
glory  whatever  it  is.  All  this  points  unerringly  to 
polygamy.  Hence,  also,  the  last  feature  of  this  com- 
plex and  unnatural  relationship,  known  as  "  spiritual 
wives,"  which  is  to  be  understood  as  follows:  Any 
woman,  having  an  earthly  husband  of  whose  final  exalta- 
tion she  is  in  doubt,  maybe  "  sealed  for  eternity  "  to 
some  prominent  Mormon,  who  will  raise  her  and  make 
her  part  of  his  final  kingdom.  In  theory  this  gives  the 
spiritual  husband  no  marital  rights,  but,  as  stated  by 
Elder  John  Hyde,  the  noted  apostate,  "it  may  well  be 
doubted  whether  the  woman  who  can  prefer  another  man 
for  her  pseudo-eternal  husband,  has  not  fallen  low  enough 
to  sin  in  deed,  as  well  as  thought,  against  her  earthly 
husband." 

By  "marriage  for  the  dead,"  living  women  are  sealed 
to  dead  men,  and  vice  versa,  some  one  "standing  proxy" 
for  the  deceased.  Thus,  a  widow  and  widower  may  each 
prefer  their  first  partners  "for  eternity,"  but  like  each 
other  well  enough  "for  time;"  in  which  case  they  are 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  445 

first  sealed  to  each  other  '  <  for  time,"  then  each,  by  proxy, 
for  the  departed  "for  eternity,"  thus  requiring  three 
separate  ceremonies  to  settle  the  temporal  and  eternal 
relations  of  all  parties,  who  may  in  turn  be  divorced  from 
either  by  the  President  of  the  Church  and  the  probate 
courts.  So  a  man  may  have  a  wife  "for  time,"  who 
belongs  to  some  man  already  dead  "for  eternity,"  in 
which  case  all  the  children  will  belong  to  the  latter  in 
eternity,  the  living  man  merely  "  raising  up  seed  unto 
his  dead  brother."  To  such  lengths  of  vain  imaginings 
may  a  credulous  people  be  led  by  artful  impostors. 

Again  I  repeat :  It  must  not  be  understood  that  women 
upheld  or  do  uphold  the  infamies  of  polygamy,  except 
through  the  blindness  of  their  faith  and  the  yet  more 
potential  influence  of  threatened  death  for  disobedience. 
As  women  are  more  emotional  and  fanatical,  so  are 
they  more  devoted  and  faithful  than  men.  Women  are 
naturally  attached  to  home,  and  with  more  affection  and 
dependency  in  their  disposition  they  are  more  quickly 
excited  by  jealousy  than  men ;  their  nature  is  to  resent 
any  invasion  of  domestic  ties,  and  this  attribute,  so  com- 
mendable, could  only  be  restrained  through  laws  damna- 
bly atrocious  in  persecuting  application.  Hence  the  Mor- 
mon Church  made  its  female  subjects  chattels  of  their 
husbands,  and  at  the  same  time  held  out,  as  an  allecta- 
tive  inducement  to  those  without  the  Church,  a  universal 
suffrage,  which,  upon  its  face,  is  made  to  appear  as  a 
corrective  means  and  provision  against  abuse,  while  in 
reality  it  operates  as  another  gyve  to  fetter  women  more 
securely.  This  suffrage  law  gives  the  right  of  ballot  to 
all  married  women  without  regard  to  their  age  or  natur- 
alization ;  thus,  a  girl  in  her  teens  may  be  brought 
from  Europe  to-day,  and  espoused  to  a  Mormon  to-mor- 
row, when  she  becomes  at  once  invested  by  Mormon  laws 


446  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

with  the  full  right  to  vote  at  any  election  held  in  Utah. 
But  instead  of  this  popular,  franchise  being  a  palladium 
to  the  women,  it  is  made  to  perform  a  purpose  which 
accrues  to  the  benefit  of  husbands  only,  for  as  all  Mor- 
mon wives  are  held  under  the  subjection  of  their  hus- 
bands, these  female  ballots  can  only  be  cast  as  proxies. 
Every  ballot  is  numbered  when  deposited,  so  that  the 
exact  way  each  voter  elects  may  be  afterward  ascertained. 
A  wife  is,  therefore,  nothing  more  than  a  machine,  that 
makes  her  husband's  vote  count  as  two  instead  of  one. 

The  full  enormity  of  this  vassalage  system  will  be 
better  understood  when  the  further  fact  is  given  that  there 
are  no  laws  in  Utah  against  rape,  incest  or  oppression ; 
nor  was  there  any  law  against  bigamy  until  1862,  when  a 
bill  making  it  a  felony  and  defining  the  penalty,  passed 
Congress,  but  the  law  has  remained  a  dead-letter  upon 
the  statute  books,  and  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
more  than  ten  thousand  men  are  now  living  in  polygamy  in 
the  territories,  there  have  never  been  but  two  convictions  for 
the  crime  of  bigamy  since  the  bill  became  a  law.  Further- 
more— and  it  is  one  of  the  most  important  considerations 
in  estimating  the  crimes  of  Mormonism- — there  are  no 
coroners  in  Utah.  In  case  of  sudden  or  suspicious  death 
there  is  no  official  inquiry  concerning  the  cause.  This 
state  of  affairs  has  given  free  license  to  murderers, 
especially  to  polygamists  who  grow  tired  of  a  wife  and 
desire  to  be  rid  of  her ;  hundreds,  yes,  thousands,  of 
women  have  been  murdered  in  Salt  Lake  City  for  no 
other  crime  than  apostasy  or  rebellion  against  a  husband's 
tyranny. 

Blood-atonement — which  means  unprovoked  murder — 
has  been  practiced  since  the  Mormon  Church  was  estab- 
lished, and  is  even  at  this  day  more  general  than  the 
outside  world  can  imagine.  This  doctrine — for  blood- 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  417 

atonement  is  a  well-defined  canon  of  the  Church — teaches 
that  when  persons  are  found  in  sin,  or  in  apostasy  to  the 
Church,  it  is  better  to  spill  their  blood  than  suffer  them 
to  die  with  all  their  sins  upon  their  heads.  In  other 
words,  when  a  husband  dislikes  his  wife,  he  can  charge 
her  with  being  an  apostate,  and  murder  her ;  the  Church 
justifies  such  an  act  by  saying  that  the  wife  is  subject  to 
her  husband ;  that  if  she  be  full  of  sin  his  duty  is  to 
blood-atone  her,  to  the  end  that  she  thus  dying  may  se- 
cure her  soul's  salvation. 


CHAPTER  X. 

BLOOD  ATONEMENT — TWO  HORRIBLE  INSTANCES. 

BRIGHAM  YOUNG  is  directly  responsible  for  the  social 
defilement  of  his  people  through  church  ordinances,  of 
which  he  was  the  creator.  Only  a  man  of  such  indomi- 
tiable  resolution,  energy,  magnetism  and  fearlessness  as 
Brigham,  could  have  controlled  so  large  a  following  im- 
pregnated with  crime  and  fanaticism  ;  but  from  a  forma- 
tive state  he  established  Mormonism  firmly  upon  a  base 
of  depravity,  which  is  more  the  wonder  that  it  has  not 
gone  to  pieces  of  sheer  rottenness  long  ago. 

One  of  the  first — if  not  the  very  first — executions  that 
occurred  in  Salt  Lake  City  under. Brigham' s  hierarchy, 
for  a  violation  of  the  Endowment  House  oaths,  was  that 
of  a  woman  who  had  lived  in  polygamy  with  three  hus- 
bands, but  was  discarded  by  each  like  the  hull  of  a  nut 
after  the  kernel  has  been  extracted.  This  woman  after- 


448  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

ward  formed  an  attachment  for  a  Gentile  reprobate,  to 
whom,  in  a  moment  of  supreme  confidence,  and  hatred  for 
Mormonism,  she  told  all  the  Endowment  House  secrets, 
besides  relating  the  particulars  of  several  crimes  that  had 
been  committed  by  orders  of  the  priesthood.  This  Gen- 
tile afterward  repeated  what  he  had  thus  learned,  and  upon 
this  information  the  unfortunate  woman  was  apprehended 
and  brought  to  trial  before  Brigham  Young  and  his 
priestly  satellites,  all  of  whom  I  could  name  and  a  ma- 
jority of  whom  are  yet  living. 

A  trial  for  heresy  and  violation  of  endowment  oaths  in 
Salt  Lake  was  nothing  more  than  a  form  of  condemna- 
tion;  she  was  found  guilty,  of  course,  and  according  to 
the  penalties  prescribed  for  such  violations,  she  was  sen- 
tenced to  undergo  a  mutilation  of  body  that  is  sickening 
to  think  of.  She  was  thereupon  consigned  to  a  cell  un- 
der Brigham  Young's  house  until  the  following  day  at 
three  o'clock,  p.  M.,  when  she  was  gagged  to  insensibility, 
placed  in  a  box  and  taken  to  the  city  hall,  accompanied 
only  by  several  elders  and  two  witnesses.  JHere  she  was 
removed  from  the  box,  the  gag  taken  from  her  mouth, 
and  in  its  place  a  V  shaped  piece  of  double  wire  wag 
thrust  between  her  teeth,  after  which  she  was  stretched 
and  bound  to  a  table.  The  horrible,  sickening  work  of 
mutilation  now  began  by  first  using  a  pair  of  long-jawed 
pincers  to  grasp  her  tougue,  by  which  means  that  organ 
was  drawn  out  from  the  mouth  and  cut  off.  The  poor 
woman's  throat  was  then  cut  from  ear  to  ear,  her  body 
was  ripped  open  and  the  entrails  taken  out,  after  which 
her  limbs  were  dismembered.  When  this  piece  of  devil- 
ish, cannibalistic  ceremony  of  blood-atonement  was  com- 
pleted, her  remains  were  then  thrown  into  the  box  in  which 
she  was  conveyed  to  the  place  of  execution,  and  taken — I 
know  not  where. 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  449 

This  story  was  told  me  by  one  whose  identity  must  not 
be  exposed,  for  the  reason  that  the  party  is  still  a  resident 
of  Salt  Lake,  and  would  become  a  victim  to  Mormon 
vengeance  should  their  identity  be  established,  but  I  will 
vouch  for  the  truth  of  the  story.  This  mode  of  punish- 
ment is  well  known  to  have  been  practiced,  and  the  justi- 
fication of  such  infamous  penalties  has  been  publicly 
made  in  the  tabernacle  hundreds  of  times. 

But  another  story,  even  more  horrible  than  the  first, 
was  also  told  the  author  during  his  visit  to  Salt  Lake  City 
in  December,  1881,  which  can  be  proved,  in  every  detail, 
by  living  witnesses,  who  would  be  glad  to  testify  to  the 
facts  if  protection  of  life  could  be  guaranteed  them.  It 
runs  as  follows  :  A  Mrs.  Maxwell,  represented  as  being 
a  very  pious  and  excellent  woman,  came  to  Salt  Lake 
City  in  1869,  with  her  husband  and  two  children,  both 
boys.  They  had  been  converted  to  Mormonism  by  an 
apostle  in  England,  who  represented  that  polygamy  was 
not  sanctioned  or  practiced  by  Latter-day  Saints,  and  that 
Utah  was  literally  a  land  overflowing  with  milk  and 
honey.  Upon  their  arrival  at  Salt  Lake,  in  company 
with  about  three  hundred  other  proselytes,  they  were  met 
by  a  body  of  Mormons,  not  a  few  of  whom  were  lecherous 
old  hypocrites  searching  for  new  wives  among  the  eligible 
young  lasses  who  composed  a  portion  of  all  the  fresh 
arrivals. 

Mrs.  Maxwell  was  a  woman  who  had  learned  just 
enough  of  Mormon  practices  to  make  her  suspicious,  and 
she  was  not  slow  in  detecting  the  purposes  of  several 
polygamous  elders  and  bishops.  Like  a  devoted  and 
loving  wife,  she  could  not  help  speaking  to  her  husband 
concerning  her  fears  that  they  had  been  deceived  into 
coming  among  a  people  not  wholly  guiltless  of  what  had 
been  charged  against  them.  He,  too,  at  first  repented  of 
29 


450 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES, 


BRINGING  HOME  A  NEW  WIFE. 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  451 

having  left  England,  but  there  was  no  lack  of  influences 
to  persuade  him  to  fortify  his  wavering  resolution,  and 
as  his  religious  faith  was  quite  strong,  it  was  easy  to  con- 
vince him  that  plural  marriage  was  a  divine  institution 
made  by  revelation  for  the  multiplying  and  upbuilding  of 
Zion.  His  efforts  were  thenceforth  directed  toward  con- 
vincing his  wife  that  Mormonism  was  the  product  of  in- 
spiration, and  all  its  practices  were .  ordinances  of  God; 
that  polygamy  was  an  injunction,  but  not  so  binding  as  to 
coerce  all  true  Saints  into  its  practical  acceptance ;  he  de- 
clared his  determination  never  to  take  another  wife,  and 
plead  his  single  devotion  to  her  in  such  a  persuasive 
manner  that  she  was  prevailed  upon  to  go  through  the 
Endowment  House  an<J  take  all  the  terrible  oaths  pre- 
scribed in  its  ceremonies. 

It  was  only  a  few  months  after  her  full  acceptance  into 
the  Church  when  all  the  horrors  of  accursed  polygamy 
confronted  her,  for  Mr.  Maxwell,  like  nearly  all  others 
under  the  ban  of  that  demoralizing  Church,  found  a 
young  and  sleek  girl  who  readily  accepted  his  offer  of 
marriage,  and  thus  became  installed  as  wife  No.  2,  to- 
gether with  all  the  preferences  and  indulgences  which,  in 
polygamous  intercourse,  the  last  wTife  always  enjoys. 
Following  the  espousal  of  this  girl,  Mr.  Maxwell  some 
months  afterward  wedded  two  other  women,  and  then  his 
first  true,  devoted  wife,  and  mother  of  his  children,  be- 
came a  mere  drudge  for  those  who  had  succeeded  to  her 
husband's  affection,  like  an  old  shoe  cast  aside  in  some 
dark  closet  to  gather  mould  and  reckoned  no  more  for 
usefulness.  Heaven  alone  may  know  the  lacerations  of 
that  trusting  heart,  the  bitter  agony  that  burned  into  her 
brain  like  a  brand  of  fire— burning,  without  consuming. 
There  were  none  to  counsel  with,  for  she  knew  that  all 
Mormon  women  were  subjects  of  but  little  more  consider- 


452  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

ation  than  horses  and  cattle,  their  very  lives  being  held 
through  a  husband's  permission. 

Mr.  Maxwell  being  now  thoroughly  brutalized,  sought 
to  persuade  his  sons  to  enter  the  Church  as  though  it 
really  promised  salvation,  but  against  this  influence  Mrs. 
Maxwell  interposed,  begging  her  two  boys,  who  were  now 
aged  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  respectively,  not  to  join 
the  Church  because  they  were  too  young  to  appreciate 
what  would  be  required  of  them,  but  she  carefully  re- 
frained from  reminding  them  of  her  own  dreadful  expe- 
rience until  all  other  resources  she  had  to  deter  them  were 
exhausted.  Maxwell  continued  to  urge  his  sons,  and 
finally  they  decided  to  go  through  the  Endowment  House, 
and  fixed  upon  a  day  to  pass  the  ceremonies. 

Mrs.  Maxwell,  upon  learning  the  determination  of  her 
boys,  called  them  to  her,  and  in  a  room  where  no  others 
were  present,  she  burst  into  tears  and  told  them  of  the 
terrible  sufferings  she  was  undergoing,  and  that  nothing 
protected  her  from  the  taking  of  her  own  life  but  the 
love  she  bore  them  ;  this  love,  so  self-sacrificing,  prompted 
her  to  reveal  all  the  terrible  oaths  that  they  would  be 
compelled  to  take  in  the  Endowment  House,  and  other- 
wise so  impressed  them  with  the  terrors  of  Mormonism 
that  they  promised  to  forego  their  determination. 

By  most  unfortunate  chance  it  happened  that  during 
this  painful  interview  between  his  loving  wife  and  her  chil- 
dren, Mr.  Maxwell  was  in  an  adjoining  room,  and  hearing 
voices,  which  led  him  to  suspect  that  his  wife  wa,s  per- 
suading the  boys  to  disobey  him,  he  applied  his  ear  to 
the  key-hole  of  a  connecting  door  and  overheard  all  of 
her  revelations.  The  demon  now  possessed  him,  for, 
really  hating  the  first  noble  companion  of  his  life,  he  had 
trampled  her  heart  beneath  his  feet,  and  was  glad  of  the 
opportunity  which  this  act  of  hers  afforded  to  use  it  for 
her  destruction. 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  453 

Maxwell  lost  no  time  in  repairing  to  Brigham  Young's 
council  chamber,  where  he  made  full  report  of  his  wife's 
revealment  of  the  Endowment  oaths,  which  he  was  sure 
would  result  in  her  execution  according  to  the  penalties 
provided  for  such  violations.  After  delivering  himself 
as  his  own  wife's  accuser,  in  obedience  to  Brigham  he 
sought  three  elders,  who,  having  been  found,  were  ordered 
to  arrest  Mrs.  Maxwell  and  bring  her  to  trial.  These  in- 
structions were  hastily  complied  with,  and  the  poor,  inex- 
pressibly unfortunate  woman  was  led  like  a  dumb  lamb 
to  the  slaughter,  down  through  a  trap  opening  under 
Brigham  Young's  council  house  into  a  dark,  damp,  hor- 
rible pit  that  had  been  specially  provided  for  blood-atone- 
ment ceremonies. 

Some  talk  had  been  indulged  in  after  the  city  hall  ex- 
ecution already  described,  and  it  was  esteemed  safer  by 
Brigham  to  inflict  subsequent  death  penalties  in  some 
private  place,  where  neither  the  screams  of  a  suffering 
victim  might  penetrate  beyond  the  place  of  immurement, 
nor  suspicion  be  excited  by  any  act  involved  in  the  fatal 
infliction  ;  hence,  a  special  apartment  was"  constructed 
under  the  council  house,  a  deep  cellar  dug  so  far  under- 
ground, and  so  protected  above  that  neither  light  nor 
sound  could  penetrate  its  sombre  isolation.  Into  this 
dark,  dreadful  pit,  Mrs.  Maxwell  was  conveyed,  and  be- 
ing accused  by  her  husband  she  was  convicted  and 
sentenced  to  death.  Since  her  boys  had  declared  their 
determination  never  to  become  Mormons,  and  were  pos- 
sessed of  the  Endowment  House  secrets,  they  were  both 
taken  with  their  unhappy  mother  to  the  secret  chamber, 
and  made  acquainted  with  the  fate  that  awaited  her. 

On  the  day  following  Mrs.  Maxwell's  conviction — 
having  been  confined  overnight  with  her  boys  in  the  dark 
pit — four  Mormon  elders,  together  with  the  demon  hus- 


454 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  455 

band,  descended  to  the  terrible  charnel  house  to  perform 
an  execution  so  damnable  and  inhuman  that  but  for  the 
incontrovertible  proofs  at  hand  it  would  be  quite  impos- 
sible to  believe  mankind  could  be  guilty  of.  They  found 
her  crouched  in  a  corner  of  this  abode  of  murder  pray- 
ing, in  which  devout  attitude  the  boys  were  joined.  As 
the  light  from  a  torch  penetrated  the  stygian  chamber  its 
flickering  flame  threw  dancing  shadows  on  the  damp 
walls  that  resembled  a  carnival  of  devils  making  merry 
over  the  approaching  sacrifice  of  motherly  love.  Now 
had  the  time  for  a  sin  offering,  as  it  was  called,  arrived, 
and  ruthless  hands  quickly  seized  Mrs.  Maxwell,  by  which 
she  was  divested  of  all  clothing  save  the  endowment  robe, 
and  she  was  then  forced  prone  upon  a  sacrifice  table  ready 
for  the  fatal  knife  that  was  destined  to  mutilate  her,  ac- 
cording to  the  provisions  created  and  ordained  by  Brig- 
ham  Young.  Being  now  firmly  pinioned  to  the  table,  her 
mouth  was  pried  open  and  into  it  was  thrust  the  V  shaped 
double  wire ;  an  elder  then  produced  his  long-jawed 
pincers  with  which  her  tongue  was  forcibly  drawn  out 
until  it  could  be  cut  off  at  the  base.  My  God  !  the  ago- 
nizing screams  of  that  poor  woman  seem  to  pierce  my 
ears  and  appeal  to  me  to  revenge  her  foul  murder ;  my 
heart  is  deathly  sick  as  I  write  and  contemplate  the  hor- 
rible and  fiendish  atrocity  on  one  whose  noble  nature, 
motherly  love  and  self-sacrificing  disposition  prompted 
her  to  a  righteous  violation  of  the  damnable  oaths  wrung 
from  her  by  a  system  of  infamous  and  delusive  influences. 
Her  tongue  being  severed,  the  executioner  next  thrust 
a  long  knife  into  her  breast,  just  below  the  sternum,  and 
cut  through  the  entire  length  of  the  abdomen,  literally 
disembowling  her,  while  still  living,  her  screams  of  agony 
seeming  to  whet  the  elder's  atrocious  appetite,  until  he 
appeared  like  an  imp  of  hell  gloating  over  the  misery  of 


456  MYSTEUiKsi  AND  MISERIES. 


the  damned.  There  was  little  more  for  this  pitiable  vic- 
tim to  endure,  for  kind  unconsciousness  eased  her  of  all 
pain,  but  yet  the  fiend  cut  her  throat  and  then  dismem- 
bered her  body  as  the  Endowment  law  directed.  In  the 
city  hall  execution  previously  noted,  the  victim  was  more 
mercifully  treated,  as  after  extirpating  her  tongue  the 
executioner  next  cut  her  throat,  which  produced  a  speedy 
death,  instead  of  ripping  her  up  while  living,  as  in  Mrs. 
Maxwell's  case. 

Scarcely  less  revolting  than  the  manner  of  execution 
was  the  fact  that  both  of  Mrs.  Maxwell's  sons  were  com- 
pelled to  witness  the  fatal  mutilation  of  their  mother, 
while  the  unnatural  husband  and  father  stood  by  a  willing 
spectator  to  every  phase  in  the  dreadful  scene,  showing 
no  more  concern  than  that  which  might  have  been  excited 
fey  a  fear  that  the  murdered  wife  would  return  to  him  in 
her  bloody  atonement  robes  and  rack  his  brain  with  tor- 
ment for  the  part  he  played.  I  hope  she  did  ! 

After  the  execution  was  accomplished  the  boys  were 
released  from  that  terrible  charnal  pit  and  bidden  to  leave 
the  territory  within  twenty-four  hours,  and  also  reminded 
that  any  revelations  concerning  the  deed  just  perpetrated 
would  subject  them  to  a  similar  penalty.  It  was  late  in 
the  evening  when  they  took  their  departure,  and  being 
wholly  without  food  to  sustain  them  upon  such  an  en- 
forced journey,  they  stopped  at  the  house  of  a  widow 
lady  friend  to  obtain  some  provisions.  Their  appearance 
indicated  violent  mental  agitation,  which  led  the  lady 
to  inquire  why  they  were  so  disturbed  and  in  such  'great 
haste.  Having  implicit  confidence  in  her  friendship,  and 
also  to  relieve  their  embarrassment,  the  boys  told  her  the 
story  of  their  mother's  conviction  and  execution  just  as  I 
have  here  repeated  it. 

No  doubt  many  who  will  read  this  description  of  an 


SALT    LAKE    CITY— POL YG AIM Y.  457 

unparalleled  atrocity  will  mentally  ask,  Where  are  the 
proofs?  For  the  satisfaction  of  such  persons  I  will  say 
that  if  the  government,  or  a  body  of  responsible  citizens, 
will  undertake  to  protect  the  witness,  the  widow  lady  re- 
ferred to  —  and  I  will  add  that  no  woman  stands  higher 

o 

in  Salt  Lake  City — she  will  make  oath  in  the  Federal 
courts  that  what  I  have  here  described  is  the  exact  story 
as  told  to  her  by  the  boys  whose  mother  suffered  such  a 
revolting  death  ;  and  furthermore,  she  will  give  the  El- 
ders' names  who  officiated  at  the  execution.  It  may  also 
be  added  that  the  boys  were  never  heard  of  after  they 
left  Salt  Lake,  and  the  natural  inference  is  that  the 
Danite  Band  overtook  them,  in  pursuance  of  an  order 
issued  by  Brigham> Young.  From  what  I  learned  through 
the  course  of  my  investigations  while  at  Salt  Lake  City, 
in  1881,  concerning  Mrs.  Maxwell's  execution,  I  think  I 
could  name  the  villain  who  used  the  knife. 

Truly,  there  is  an  all-seeing  eye  from  which  no  crime 
can  be  hidden  ! 

As  additional  circumstantial  evidence  in  support  of  the 
charge  that  Brigham  Young  commanded  such  executions 
to  be  made,  the  following  extracts  from  public  sermons 
he  preached  from  time  to  time  in  Salt  Lake  City  are  here 
given,  advising  and  defending  blood-atonement: 

I  could  refer  you  to  plenty  of  instances  where  men  have  been 
righteously  slain  in  order  to  atone  for  their  sins. 

But  now  I  say,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  that  if  this  people 
will  sin  no  more,  but  faithfully  live  their  religion,  their  sins  will  be 
forgiven  them  without  taking  life. 

Now,  when  you  hear  my  brethren  telling  about  cutting  people 
off  from  the  earth,  you  consider  it  strong  doctrine;  but  it  is  to 
save  them,  not  to  destroy  them. 

All  mankind  love  themselves ;  and  let  these  principles  be 
known  by  an  individual,  and  he  would  be  glad  to  have  his  blood 
shed.  That  would  be  loving  themselves  even  unto  an  eternal 
exaltation. 

This  is  loving  our  neighbor  as  ourselves ;  if  he  needs  help, 


458  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

help  him;  if  he  wishes  salvation,  and  it  is  necessary  to  spill  his 
blood  upon  the  ground  in  order  that  he  be  saved,  spill  it. 

Any  of  you  who  understand  the  principles  of  eternity,  if  you 
have  sinned  a  sin  requiring  the  shedding  of  blood,  except  the  sin 
unto  death,  would  not  be  satisfied  or  rest  until  your  blood  should 
be  spilled,  that  you  might  gain  the  salvation  you  desire.  This  is 
the  way  to  love  mankind. 

It  is  true,  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God  was  shed  for  sins  through 
the  fall,  and  those  committed  by  men,  yet  ye  men  can  commit  sins 
which  it  can  never  remit.  As  it  was  in  the  ancient  days  so  it  is  in 
our  day  ;  and  though  the  principles  are  taught  publicly  from  this 
stand,  still  the  people  do  not  understand  them ;  yet  the  law  is 
precisely  the  same. 

I  have  known  a  great  many  men  who  have  left  this  Church  for 
whom  there  is  no  chance  whatever  of  exaltation ;  but  if  their 
blood  had  been  spilled  it  would  have  been  better  for  them.  The 
wickedness  and  ignorance  of  the  nations  forbid  this  principle  be- 
ing in  full  force,  but  the  time  will  come  when  the  laws  of  God  will 
be  in  full  force. 

Will  you  love  your  brothers  and  sisters  likewise  when  they  have 
committed  a  sin  that  cannot  be  atoned  for  without  the  shedding 
of  blood  ?  Will  you  love  that  man  or  woman  well  enough  to 
shed  their  blood?  That  is  what  Jesus  Christ  meant.  He  never 
told  a  man  or  woman  to  love  their  enemies  in  their  wickedness. 
He  never  intended  any  such  thing. 

I  have  known  scores  and  hundreds  of  people  for  whom  there 
would  have  been  a  chance  in  the  last  resurrection,  if  their  lives 
had  been  taken  and  their  blood  spilled  upon  the  ground  as  a 
smoking  incense  to  the  Almighty,  but  who  are  now  angels  to  the 
devil,  until  our  elder  brother,  Jesus  Christ,  raises  them  up,  con- 
quers death,  hell  and  the  grave. 

There  are  sins  that  can  be  atoned  for  by  an  offering  upon  an 
altar  as  in  ancient  days,  and  there  are  sins  that  the  blood  of  a 
lamb,  of  a  calf,  or  of  turtle  doves  cannot  remit,  but  they  must 
be  atoned  for  by  the  blood  of  the  man.  This  is  the  reason  why 
men  talk  to  you  as  they  do  from  this  stand  ;  they  understand  the 
doctrine  and  throw  out  a  few  words  about  it.  You  have  been 
taught  that  doctrine,  but  you  do  not  understand  it. 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  459 


CHAPTER  XI. 

WHY     WOMEN      BECOME     MORMONS PITIABLE     STORIES     OF 

THOSE    IN    POLYGAMY. 

IT  may  well  be  asked  why  women  unite  with  such  an 
abominable  sect  as  the  Mormons  ;  the  answer  can  only  be  giv- 
en through  a  consideration  of  the  psychological  peculiarities 
wherein  women  are  so  directly  opposite  to  men  in  nearly 
till  the  attributes  of  their  nature.  It  is  a  statistically 
proved  fact  that  three-fourths  of  the  total  church  mem- 
bership, including  all  denominations  that  exist  on  the 
globe,  are  females  ;  and  this  same  fact  appears  also  in  the 
aggregate  of  Mormon  strength  as  a  church.  We  can 
readily  perceive  that  as  women  are  more  emotional,  they 
are  consequently  more  religious,  and  this  feeling  extends 
among  them  to  fanaticism  ;  they  are  easily  persuaded  to 
a  belief  in  the  supernatural.,  and  the  establishment  of 
such  a  belief,  when  denned  by  creed  or  covenant,  can 
rarely  be  supplanted  by  appealing  to  their  reason.  They 
are  essentially  like  the  dog  that  licks  the  hand  that  smites 
it.  Since  the  days  of  Adam  women  have  been  regarded 
with  little  consideration  by  the  church,  except  in  some  of 
the  Caucasian  countries,  ^vhere  Christ's  new  dispensation 
has  accorded  them  some  inherent  rights  and  communicant 
privileges  ;  but  generally  speaking,  taking  the  church 
militant  of  the  earth,  women  are  little  less  than  slaves  to 
men's  caprices  and  passions.  Thousands  of  women  are 
violently  opposed  to  female  suffrage ;  they  believe  their 
opposition  to  be  based  upon  an  intangible  and  indefinable 
principle,  which  they  designate  as  modesty,  unsexing 
themselves,  out  of  their  spheres,  etc.,  but  the  real  reason 


460  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

is  because  they  have  been  eternally  subjected,  in  a  state  of 
vassalage,  as  it  were,  which  magnifies  and  distorts  the 
principles  of  universal  suffrage.  We  find  this  same  sub- 
ordinated condition  in  the  woman  who  voluntarily  retires 
from  the  world  to  become  a  nun,  relinquishing  and  sacri- 
ficing every  attribute  God  has  bestowed  upon  her  as  a 
provision  for  her  enjoyment ;  \ve  behold  it  again  in  the 
woman  who  sacrifices  her  child  to  a  crocodile,  under  the 
delusion  that  it  is  a  peace  offering  to  her  Creator;  and 
even  more  strikingly  do  we  find  it  in  the  woman 
who  voluntarily  throws  herself  upon  the  funeral  pyre  of 
her  dead  husband  and  is  consumed  with  it. 

We  never  have  any  illustrations  like  these  of  man's 
religious  fanaticism,  and  in  this  marked  difference  be- 
tween the  sexes  we  find  the  true  reason  why  women  become 
Mormons  and  suffer  such  cruel  and  degrading  indignities. 
It  is  different  from  other  denominations  in  the  civilized 
world  only  in  inverse  progress.  Mormonism,  instead  of 
advancing  by  liberal  footsteps,  has  gone  back  into  the 
ancient  ages  and  become  like  the  church  of  Moses, 
Abraham  and  the  old  patriarchs  who  lived  under  revela- 
tions just  as  the  Mormon  Church  does  to-day.  They  have 
literally  accepted  the  Old  Testament  as  their  code  of 
ethics  and  live  under  it,  by  which  we  may  see  an  ex- 
istent society  identical  with  that  described  in  the  Penta- 
teuch. 

During  the  latter  part  of  last  year  (1881)  I 
made  a  careful  study  of  the  several  phases  of  Mor- 
monism, through  elaborate  interviews  with  members, 
both  male  and  female,  including  heads  of  the  Church,  as 
also  with  both  men  and  women  in  apostasy.  Many 
strange  stories  were  told  to  me  in  these  conversations, 
but  in  one  thing  they  all  agreed,  viz.  :  that  their  conver- 
sion to  the  faith  was,  in  every  instance,  directly  due  to  the 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  461 

operation  of  some  miracle.  In  this  connection  I  will  give 
the  story  of  one  woman  with  whom  I  conversed  on  Mor- 
monism  one  entire  afternoon.  This  lady,  Mrs.  Margaret 
Hunt,  possesses  much  natural  talent  and  intelligence,  and 
as  her  experience  was  told  in  the  most  impressive  man- 
ner, so  that  I  cannot  doubt  a  single  statement  it  contains, 
I  here  give  the  most  important  parts  of  it.  I  have  to 
acknowledge  obligations  to  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Paddock,  a 
well  known  authoress  of  Salt  Lake  City,  for  an  introduc- 
tion to  Mrs.  Hunt,  who  gave  me  her  experience  in  Mormon- 
ism  and  polygamy  substantially  as  follows  : 

"I  was  born  and  reared  in  New  York  City.  When 
seventeen  years  of  age  a  severe  attack  of  lung  fever 
struck  me  down,  so  that  my  life  was  despaired  of.  Day 
after  day  I  was  expected  to  die,  and,  indeed,  I  had  re- 
signed myself  to  that  momentarily  expected  blow.  While 
lying  in  this  condition,  a  young  man,  who  formerly 
worked  for  my  father,  but  two  years  before  my  attack 
had  gone  to  Utah,  suddenly  returned  to  New  York,  and, 
finding  me  sick  unto  death's  door,  advised  me  to  send  for 
a  Mormon  elder,  who,  he  declared,  could  cure  me  by  the 
laying  on  of  hands.  My  parents  were  Methodists  and 
considered  the  advice  as  an  insult,  but  in  my  weak  and 
despairing  frame  of  mind  I  told  the  young  man  to  bring 
the  Mormon  elder,  which  he  did  the  following  day.  When 
the  elder  came  he  approached  my  bed  and  laid  his  two 
hands  on  my  forehead.  Immediately  I  felt  three  rigors 
pass  from  my  head  to  my  feet,  and  five  minutes  afterward 
I  felt  entirely  recovered.  Despite  my  father  and  moth- 
er's protest  I  arose  from  the  bed,  dressed  and  praised 
God  for  the  gift  of  His  mercy.  Firmly  impressed  that  a 
miracle  had  been  worked  on  me,  I  felt  that  the  elder  was 
a  man  of  God,  and  I  embraced  Mormonism,  being  bap- 
tized one  week  after  in  the  river  at  the  foot  of  Canal 


462  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

street.  I  continued  in  the  Church  for  several  months, 
but  at  length  apostatized  on  account  of  things  I  saw  prac- 
ticed by  the  Mormons ,  but  particularly  because  of  the  per- 
sistent suit  of  an  elder  who  sought  to  make  me  his  wife. 
A  vision  told  me  to  beware  of  him,  and  this  led  me  to 
quit  the  Church.  But  it  was  not  long  until  I  was  the  sub- 
ject of  another  miracle  (the  story  is  too  long  to  give  it  in 
its  entirety),  and  again  I  went  into  the  Church.  A  few 
months  after  this  I  was  married  to  William  Hunt,  and  to- 
gether we  were  baptized  again  and  settled  down  in  New 
York.  We  lived  very  happily  together ;  he  was  always 
doing  something  to  please  me,  and  both  of  us  being  of 
an  affectionate  disposition  it  seemed  that  our  lives  were 
cast  in  the  eternal  sunshine  of  paradise.  In  the  spring 
of  1862  the  Church  elders  wanted  us  to  remove  to  the 
land  of  Zion.  I  talked  with  Mr.  Hunt  about  it ;  told  him 
I  had  heard  that  men  there  practiced  polygamy,  and  I 
thought  we  had  better  not  go.  He  coincided  with  me, 
but  the  heads  of  the  Church  said  it  was  our 
duty  to  go,  and  my  husband  and  I  soon  consented. 
On  the  day  of  our  departure  from  New  York, 
however,  I  had  a  strange  presentiment  that  we  were 
going  into  a  land  of  trouble.  I  spoke  to  Mr.  Hunt, 
whom  I  worshiped  above  my  God,  and  asked  him 
if  he  could  ever  become  a  polygamist.  Never  'can  I 
forget  his  answer.  (At  this  point  Mrs.  Hunt  burst  into 
tears  and  almost  fainted.)  He  pulled  me  down  upon  his 
knee,  and,  putting  his  arms  lovingly  about  my  neck, 
kissed  me  many  times,  and  then  said  :  '  You  are  all  the 
woman  on  earth  to  me ;  none  can  ever  be  so  dear,  so 
beautiful  in  my  eyes  ;  none  can  ever  come  into  our  eden 
of  love  with  us  ;  trust  me,  that  only  when  the  sky  gives 
birth  to  two  suns  will  I  ever  do  a  single  act  that  causes 
you  regret.'  Well,  loving  him  as  I  did  before,  I  loved 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  403 

him,  if  possible,  more  still  when  he  told  rne  this,  so  we 
came  overland  to  Salt  Lake  City.  We  went  through  the 
Endowment  House  here  and  began  life  in  this  place.  Day 
after  day  I  was  as  happy  as  the  bird  that  sings  its  lirst 
song  after  mating  day.  Children  were  born  to  us  until 
we  had  seven,  and  they  were  our  delight.  Only  one  was 
taken  from  us,  and  that  an  infant.  We  prospered  in 
everything  that  increased  our  boundless  wealth  of  happi- 
ness. But  one  day  (had  I  only  died  then)  there  came  a 
change.  William  (that  is  what  I  called  my  husband) 
came  home  and  said  that  Brigham  had  ordered  him  to 
take  another  wife.  I  almost  fainted  when  lie  told  me 
this,  and,  like  a  wife  and  mother,  heaped  abuse  on  that 
church  minister's  head.  William  then  declared  to  me 
that  he  would  not  go  into  polygamy.  Then  I  blessed 
him,  and  felt  as  though  he  must  never  leave  me  again, 
not  even  to  go  into  the  city.  But  I  had  misgivings,  and 
these  harassed  me  by  day  and  night.  I  had  a  servant 
girl  living  with  me,  who  came  West  with  us,  and  as  she 
was  so  good  to  the  children  I  thought  a  great  deal  of  her. 
She  was  young  and  I  had  almost  a  mother's  feeling  for 
her. 

"William  again  came  to  me  one  day  and  said  that  he 
was  endangering  his  hope  for  salvation  by  refusing  to  go 
into  polygamy.  (The  Church  teaches  that  no  man  can 
reach  the  highest  happiness  hereafter  unless  he  shall  have 
a  plurality  of  wives.)  Well,  I  begged  him  as  only  a 
loving  wife  about  to  lose  her  idol  can,  on  my  knees  I  im- 
plored him  to  leave  Utah  ;  to  think  of  our  children,  of 
our  love  and  the  many  days  of  our  undisturbed  happiness. 
But  he  argued  with  me  by  saying  he  should  obey  the 
ordinances  of  God  ;  that  if  he  took  another  wife  it  would 
not  change  his  old  love  ;  that  I  would  always  be  first  in 
his  heart, 


464 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


'  *  It  was  thus  that  weary  days  and  nights  passed  ;  dark- 
ness had  dispelled  the  sunlight  of  married  life  ;  my  God  ! 
how  I  did  pray  to  be  delivered  from  that  approaching 
curse,  but  I  was  helpless,  and  there  were  none  to  sympa- 
thize with  me. 

* i  Up  to  this  time  I  did  not  suspect  whom  William  was 
expecting  to  marry,  but  at  length,  when  he  told  me  he 
was  about  to  be  sealed  to  Jane,  'my  servant  girl,  my 


PRAYING   FOR   DELIVERANCE. 


wretchedness  increased.  I  went  to  her  and  pleaded  with 
all  my  heart  for  her  to  give  up  the  idea.  She  seemed  to 
feel  sad,  but  still  declared  her  love  for  him.  I  thought 
then  of  going  to  Brigham,  but  my  husband  said  it  would 
be  a  foolish  act  and  only  result  in  my  humiliation.  So  I 
did  not  know  what  to  do.  I  felt  murder  in  my  heart, 
and  could  have  killed  both  my  husband  and  Jane,  but 
still  I  loved  him  with  the  wildest  infatuation. 

"  At  length  the  day  came  for  the  wedding,  and  I  was 
asked  if  I  desired  to  witness  the  marriage  ceremony.  I 
said  'yes,'  and  went  to  the  Endowment  House  with  my 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  465 

brain  on  fire  and  so  overcome  that  I  fainted  three  times 
in  the  building  before  the  marriage  ceremony  was  com- 
pleted. Just  before  sealing  the  two,  Brigham  Young 
turned  to  me  and  asked  : 

44  '  Sister  Hunt,  do  you  consent  to  the  marriage  of  your 
husband  to  this  woman  ? ' 

44 1  replied  :     4  Yes,  and  No.' 

44  4  This  is  a  very  singular  answer.  What  do  you  mean, 
sister?' 

4  4  4 1  meam  that  if  this  is  the  only  way  my  husband  can 
see  God  and  attain  a  blessed  life  everlasting,  then  yes ; 
but  speaking  from  my  heart,  and  with  a  wife's  world  of 
love,  I  reply  no,  no,  a  thousand  times  ;  for  his  life  eter- 
nal I  can  say  yes,  but  if  it  is  my  life  that  depends  upon 
this  issue,  I  say  no  ;  I  would  rather  abide  in  hell  than 
have  him  marry  another  woman.' 

44  This  answer  disconcerted  Brigham  somewhat,  but  it 
was  regarded  as  a  consent,  and  my  husband  received  a 
second  wife,  while  my  heart  perished  forever  when  they 
were  pronounced  one. 

44  But  the  loss  of  my  husband  in  this  manner  was  but 
the  beginning  of  a  system  of  persecution,  to  which  I  was 
a  victim  for  two  years.  Mr.  Hunt  had  no  sooner  taken 
his  new  and  young  wife  home  than  he  began  to  despise 
me.  The  girl,  too,  a  wife  jointly  with  me,  turned  against 
me.  One  week  after  the  marriage,  as  we  were  walking 
together,  I  asked  Jane  why  she  treated  me  so  coldly. 
She  replied:  4 It  is  because  I  hate  you,  and  I  hate  you 
because  you  are  the  wife  of  Mr.  Hunt.' 

44  This  new  wife  of  William's  adopted  a  new  life  ;  in- 
stead of  working,  as  before  marriage,  she  assumed  the 
mistresship,  and  I  had  to  perform  all  the  labor  that  was 
not  done  by  my  children.  Daily  I  was  the  enforced  wit- 
ness of  their  love-making — the  new  wife  on  the  knee  and 
30 


466  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

in  the  embraces  of  my  husband.  I  was  not  allowed  any 
privileges,  and  my  children  were  thrust  aside  by  their 
father  and  Jane.  We  had  frequent  brawls,  and  many 
times  my  husband  has  struck  me  down  with  his  fist.  At 
length  my  burden  of  trouble  had  become  so  great  that  I 
resolved  to  commit  suicide.  In  pursuance  of  this  resolve 
I  went  to  a  drug-store  and  purchased  laudanum  enough 
to  do  the  work.  The  druggist  seemed  to  suspect  my 
motives,  for  he  asked  me  what  I  wanted  the  drug  for.  I 
replied  that  it  was  for  a  sore  throat.  He  insisted  on 
mixing  some  tincture  of  myrrh  with  it,  and  then  taking 
the  bottle,  I  went  into  a  sunflower  patch,  and  drank  the 
contents.  When  I  realized  my  deed,  I  knelt  down  and 
poured  my  soul  out  in  prayer  for  forgiveness.  I  then 
went  home,  and  as  I  reached  the  door,  my  youngest  little 
girl  came  running  toward  me  crying,  and  said :  '  Oh, 
mamma,  I'se  so  dlad  you  tome  ;  papa  won't  dive  me  any 
dinne,  and  I'se  so  hungy.' 

"  I  saw  Mr.  Hunt  and  his  wife  sitting  at  the  table  eat- 
ing by  themselves,  while  my  children  were  driven  into  the 
garden.  My  God  !  said  I,  what  have  I  done  !  What  a 
coward  I  have  been  to  kill  myself  and  leave  these  children 
without  one  to  love  them. 

"  I  had  not  been  in  the  house  more  than  five  minutes 
when  I  began  to  feel  the  effects  of  the  laudanum.  I 
asked  Jane  if  she  would  be  a  mother  to  my  children  if  I 
died. 

"'No,  never;  I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  your 
brats,'  she  replied. 

"  I  then  more  fully  realized  the  enormity  of  my  crime, 
and  I  prayed  that  my  life  might  be  spared  for  my  chil- 
dren's sake.  But  the  deadly  drug  began  to  do  its  work  ; 
my  head  was  bursting,  my  eyes  were  turning  inward, 
while  my  ears  were  assailed  with  the  most  deafening 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY, 


467 


noises ;  cannons  firing,  drams  beating,  fiends  shouting, 
water  roaring,  and  a  confusion  of  noises  which  tore  my 
brain  as  with  red-hot  pincers.  Still  I  was  conscious.  I 
could  still  hear  Jane  crying,  « Oh,  she  is  dying !  go  for 


MY  CHILDREN  BEGGING  FOR  BREAD. 

the  elder!'  But  my  husband  only  cursed  me,  and  said, 
'I  hope  she  will  die.'  He  demanded  of  me  to  know 
what  I  had  taken,  but  I  refused  to  tell  him.  When  I 
became  unconscious  at  last,  they  found  the  empty  bottle 
in  my  pocket,  where  I  had  inadvertently  placed  it  after 
drinking  the  contents,  and  then  I  was  put  to  bed  by  Ji 


468  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

(ray  husband  cursing  me  all  the  time).  I  drank  two 
teacupsful  of  soap  grease,  which  proved  an  emetic  that 
saved  my  life. 

"After  I  recovered,  my  husband  continually  upbraided 
me  on  my  unsuccessful  attempt  at  suicide,  saying  he 
wished  I  would  complete  the  job,  and  so  exasperated  me 
that  at  length  I  again  resolved  to  do  the  deed  ;  but  when 
about  to  perform  the  act  a  voice  sounded  in  my  ear,  say- 
ing: «  Write.' 

"I  did  not  understand  the  warning,  but,  taking  pen 
and  ink  I  wrote  the  following,  in  the  composition  of 
which  my  own  intelligence  had  no  part : 

"  LAMENT  OF  A  BROKEN  HEART. 

"  'Tis  past,  alas,  my  joys  are  o'er, 

No  hope  inspires  my  breast , 
My  aching  head  beats  more  and  more, 

My  breaking  heart  can't  rest. 

"  The  one  I  loved  has  turned  away, 

Another  holds  his  heart, 
And  I  must  live  in  sad  dismay 

To  do  a  mother's  part. 

*  "Hush,  breaking  heart,  if  heaven's  decreed 

Thou  must  be  still  and  bear, — 
I  give  consent  —  God  knows  the  deed 
Was  sacrifice  and  prayer. 

"Come,  Holy  Spirit,  lend  thy  aid; 

Let  pity  bring  Thee  near 
To  soothe  and  calm  my  aching  head, 

And  drive  away  my  fear. 

"  Forgive  me,  oh !  my  Father  dear, 

Thou  know'st  my  weakly  frame ; 
Thou  knowest  I  love  Thee  not  through  fear, 

But  love  to  praise  Thy  name. 


SALT   LAKE   CITY — POLYGAMY,  469 

"  Prepare  me,  O  !  for  what's  to  come ; 

Forgive  me  for  the  past ; 
Provide  my  little  ones  a  home 

And  save  them  at  the  last. 

"  And  when  Thou  think'st  that  I  have  done 

With  earth  and  all. its  cares, 
Wilt  Thou,  O  Father,  take  me  home 

From  earth  and  all  its  snares  ?  " 

"That  poem,"  said  Mrs.  Hunt,  "saved  me  from  a 
suicide's  grave.  It  gave  me  strength  to  live  for  my 
children ,  and  I  have  borne  it  all .  Two  years  ago  my  hus- 
band rented  a  house  for  himself  and  Jane,  and  I  have 
never  lived  with  them  since.  Jane,  three  weeks  after 
giving  birth  to  a  child,  left  him,  and  he  is  now  a  drunk- 
ard on  the  streets  of  Salt  Lake  City,  an  object  of  pity. 
I  have  no  othe^r  feeling  for  him,  for  God  has  made 
him  suffer,  and  time  makes  all  things  even.  Twice 
have  attempts  been  made  on  my  life  by  the  Danites  for 
revealing  the  secrets  of  polygamy,  but  a  higher  power 
has  sustained  me.  No  human  being  ever  suffered  more 
than  I ;  may  God  give  me  recompense." 

This  story  I  have  necessarily  summarized,  but  it  is  bad 
enough,  and  yet  it  is  a  history  that  will  describe  the  life 
of  nearly  every  polygamist's  wife. 

Miss  Eliza  Snow,  one  of  the  active  female  apostles, 
who,  though  never  legally  married,  was  for  several  years 
one  of  Brigham  Young's  spiritual  wives,  has  also  declared 
her  hatred  for  the  Church  and  its  practices,  which  she 
admits  are  abominable,  yet  she  uses  all  her  means  to  in- 
duce young  girls  to  unite  with  the  polygamous  sect. 

It  is  asserted  by  Mormons  that  before  a  man  already 
married  can  espouse  a  second  wife,  the  consent  of  his 
first  must  be  obtained ;  but  this  is  a  mere  technicality 
that  is  available  only  as  an  argument  to  sustain  the  poly- 


470  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

gamous  institution.  As  noted  already,  a  wife  dare  not 
interpose  against  her  husband's  wishes,  and  her  consent 
in  all  cases  is  at  the  autocratic  dictation  of  her  master, 
whom  she  dare  not  oppose. 

But  there  are  instances  where  wives  are  strong-minded 
enough  to  defy  their  husbands,  and  others  who  have  a 
persuasive  influence  which  bears  fruits  of  compassionate 
indulgence  ;  but,  as  a  rule,  women  have  no  recourse  to 
right  the  wrongs  done  them  in  Utah. 

Not  long  since,  in  fact  I  was  told  the  circumstance  last 
December,  an  instance  occurred  in  Salt  Lake  City  illus- 
trative of  the  deceptions  practiced  on  unsuspecting  wives 
by  husbands  anxious  to  enter  the  plural  condition.  A 
man  named  Carpenter,  well-to-do,  had  a  lovely  wife  who 
fairly  worshiped  the  earth  he  trod  upon ;  a  woman  uni- 
versally beloved  by  her  neighbors  and  who  had  the  re- 
spect of  her  husband — he  was  incapable  of  love.  This 
admirable  lady  was  always  unhappy  because  of  the  de- 
pressing anxiety  which  continually  preyed  upon  her,  the 
fear  that  her  husband  would  take  another  wife,  though 
he  assured  her  every  day  that  such  a  thing  was  quite  im- 
possible for  him  to  do,  loving  her  so  well.  But  Mrs. 
Carpenter  could  not  be  satisfied,  as  she  had  already  heard 
many  such  protestations  from  monogamio  husbands  who 
afterward  took  to  themselves  other  wives.  At  length  this 
noble  and  true  woman  came  to  a  period  of  motherhood, 
and  during  her  sickness  she  suffered  intensely  while  for 
several  weeks  she  lay  at  the  threshold  of  death.  In  her  ex- 
treme helplessness  and  confinement  the  iniquitous  hus^ 
band  found  his  opportunity  to  hearken  unto  Taylor's  in- 
structions and  secure  another  wife,  which  he  did,  and 
then,  as  though  possessed  of  a  savage  cruelty,  he  took  his 
new  spouse  home  and  installed  her  as  mistress  of  the 
household :  as  a  successor  to  his  poor,  emaciated,  suffer- 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  471 

ing  wife,  who  at  such  a  cost  had  given  him  an  offering  of 
her  love.  The  thought  of  suicide  occurred  to  her  the 
moment  she  learned  of  her  husband's  treachery  and  in- 
famy, but  the  little,  innocent  babe  at  her  breast,  by  its 
natural  instincts,  reminded  her  that  she  was  a  mother,  and 
noble  motherhood  is  always  ready  to  sacrifice  every  feel- 
ing, endure  all  punishments,  for  her  child.  It  was  fate  that 
she  should  recover,  so  was  it  her  destiny  never  more  to 
feel  the  tender  embrace  of  a  husband  she  had  loved  so  de- 
votedly ;  another  had  superceded  her  in  his  affections  and 
thenceforth  there  were  no  blossoms  of  beauty  in  this  life, 
nor  sweet  songs  of  a  satisfied  heart,  to  remind  her  of  the 
goodness  of  man  or  the  mercy  of  God. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SUMPTUOUS     CHURCH     OFFICERS     AND     POVERTY-STRICKEN 

MEMBERS. 

THE  Mormon  Church  is  sustained  by  a  vast  missionary 
and  commercial  system.  Joe  Smith,  untutored  and  inex- 
perienced as  he  was,  had  the  intuitive  genius  to  found 
a  sect  upon  principles  that  insured  success :  by 
making  a  creed  liberal  enough  to  attract  the  baser  na- 
ture of  mankind,  yet  so  stringent  and  dominjant  in  the 
hands  of  the  rulers  as  to  make  it  cohesive  ;  but  above  all 
he  incorporated  a  prime  ordinance  by  which  the  Church 
has  been  enriched ;  this  law  compels  every  Mormon  to 
make  an  annual  contribution  to  the  Church  of  one-tenth 
of  all  his  profits,  whether  in  money  or  products.  By  the 
levy  of  such  a  tribute  an  immense  income  was  assured, 


472  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

that  has  been  partly  used  in  building  temples  and  taber- 
nacles, but  principally  in  multiplying  the  comforts  of 
chief  rulers,  as  will  be  shortly  shown. 

Apostles  were  selected  to  preach  Mormonisru  to  all 
people,  and  in  the  manner  their  services  are  rendered  we 
find  the  strongest  adherency  and  patriotism  that  is  ex- 
hibited in  any  church  in  Christendom.  These  apostles 
are  called  to  act  as  missionaries  by  revelation — so  de- 
clared— given  to  the  President,  who  instructs  them  in 
their  duties,  but  makes  no  provision  for  their  remunera- 
tion, which  is  not  considered.  The  Mormons  hold  to  a 
literal  interpretation  of  Christ's  instructions  to  His  disci- 
ples, whom  He  ordered  to  go  forth  and  preach  the  gos- 
pel, but  to  take  with  them  neither  money  nor  garments, 
nor  abide  two  nights  in  any  man's  house.  Preaching  for 
money,  they  claim,  is  an  unpardonable  sin,  and  it  is  true 
that  these  apostles  are  paid  nothing  for  their  services, 
neither  are  their  families  provided  for  by  the  Church  ;  a 
missionary  service  is  therefore  a  labor  of  love,  to  engage 
in  which,  by  command,  many  Mormons  sell  the  last  thing 
they  have  to  obtain  the  means  necessary  for  their  journey- 
ing, for  they  are  compelled  to  pay  even  all  their  traveling 
expenses. 

But  what  is  saved  or  collected  through  the  operations 
of  a  tithing  law  and  generosity  of  apostles  goes,  in  large 
part,  to  the  upbuilding — not  so  much  of  Zion  as  the  pri- 
vate fortunes  of  Church  dignitaries.  Brigham  Young, 
upon  his  death,  which  occurred  August  29th,  1877,  left 
an  estate  valued  at  $3,000,000.  His  children,  forty- 
eight  in  number,  each  received  $20,000  in  cash,  while  his 
fifteen  living  wives  were  liberally  provided  for.  Some  of 
the  property  has  not  yet  been  apportioned  in  partition, 
including  interests  in  mines  and  railroads.  John  Taylor, 
Young's  successor,  is  the  fee  simple  owner  of  an  estate 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  473 

almost  as  large  as  that  left  by  Brigham,  but  it  is  chiefly 
in  notes  and  bonds.  Brigham  Young  was  a  notoriously 
bad  financier,  and  was  made  the  victim  of  a  thousand 
visionary  schemes  ;  had  he  prudently  guarded  his  wealth 
there  is  no  reason  why  at  his  death  he  should  not  have 
left  a  fortune  ten  times  greater  than  he  did. 

Salt  Lake  City,  with  a  population  of  only  twenty-five 
thousand  souls,  has  living  within  her  limits  twelve  mil- 
lionaires, every  one  of  whom  is  an  officer  in  the  Mormon 
Church,  excepting  one,  Mr.  Walker,  who  made  most  of 
his  money  while  a  Church  bishop,  but  is  now,  and  has 
been  for  several  years  an  apostate.  The  Mount  Zion 
Mercantile  and  Co-operative  Institution  is  a  commercial 
emporium  conducted  something  like  a  Grange  store,  the 
profits  of  which  are  supposed,  by  ignorant  Mormons,  to 
go  to  the  Church,  but  in  reality  they  are  divided  among 
the  ruling  officers. 

Brigham  Young,  some  years  before  his  death,  built  a 
magnificent  residence,  which  has  ever  since  been  known 
as  Amelia's  Palace,  as  it  was  intended  as  a  private  man- 
sion for  his  favorite  wife,  Amelia  Young,  nee  Folsom ; 
but  this  woman  did  not  long  occupy  it,  owing  to  her  im- 
placable disposition,  which  Brigham  punished  by  remov- 
ing her  to  less  pretentious  quarters  and  making  the  palace 
the  President's  mansion.  It  is  now  the  residence  "of 
President  Taylor,  who  moved  into  it  the  latter  part  of 
1881.  The  Salt  Lake  Tribune,  of  December,  contained 
a  notice  of  Taylor's  preparation  for  removal  to  the  man- 
sion, as  follows : 

' '  For  the  past  week  new  invoices  of  costly  furniture 
for  the  Amelia  Palace  have  been  arriving  daily.  Yester- 
day six  loads  of  magnificent  chairs  and  sofas  were  dumped 
down  in  the  back  yard.  Every  hour  in  the  day  the  hard- 
working, bronze-fisted  tithe-payers  stop  in  front  of  the 


474 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES, 


SALT   LAKE    CITY — POLYGAMY.  475 

palace  and  gaze  upon  these  costly  baubles,  and  make 
mental  inventories  of  how  much  they  have  delved  and 
dug  and  sweated  to  pay  for  John  Taylor's  extravagance. 
There  are  sofas  in  the  outfit  which  cost  $150  apiece,  easy 
chairs  which  cost  $75,  and  carpets  which  cost  $500  for 
each  room.  The  style  in  which  Taylor  proposes  to  live 
is  in  marked  contrast  with  his  humble  circumstances  in 
the  years  when  he  played  second  fiddle  to  the  big  boss 
Brigham.  At  that  time  he  had  hard  work  to  get  along, 
and  when  elevated  to  the  position  of  seer  and  revelator 
George  Cannon  offered  him  one  of  his  houses  to  live  in, 
because  his  house  was  too  poor  an  abode  for  a  prophet  of 
the  Lord.  Since  Taylor  has  been  able  to  grasp  the  reins 
of  power,  he  has  made  his  hay  at  a  lively  rate,  but  his 
grasping  energies  are  not  to  the  strengthening  of  the 
stakes  of  Zion,  but  to  the  vulgar  accumulation  of  riches. 
The  poor  dupes  of  his  doctrines  wear  shabby  clothes  and 
live  in  wretched  adobe  huts,  that  they  may  pay  tithes  and 
enable  the  sleek  fraud  who  rules  the  Church  and  handles 
the  cash-box  to  lounge  amidst  luxuries  which  cannot  be 
furnished  in  Utah,  but  must  of  necessity  be  procured  in 
New  York.  It  is  estimated  that  the  furniture  cost  $50,- 
000,  but  those  who  have  inspected  it  say  that  the  palace 
cannot  be  furnished  in  the  style  Taylor  contemplates  for 
less  than  $75,000  to  $100,000. 

"The  question  which  the  Saints  are  beginning  to  ask 
themselves  is,  *  where  does  John  Taylor  get  all  this 
money,  unless  he  appropriates  it  bodily  from  the  tithing 
fund?'  This  money,  the  Mormons  think,  should  go  to 
beautify  the  temples  of  the  Lord  instead  of  being  squan- 
dered on  Taylor,  who  hasn't  revealed  anything  of  any 
account  since  he  went  into  office.  Taylor's  excuse  for 
this  course  is  that  he  is  not  fitting  up  the  palace  for  him- 
self, but  for  the  princes  and  potentates  of  Europe,  and 


476  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

Senators  and  Congressmen  who  may  happen  to  emigrate 
this  way.  The  cellar  is  to  be  stocked  with  the  best 
champagne — for  visitors  to  be  entertained  with ;  but 
when  John  Taylor  thinks  a  bottle  is  liable  to  spoil,  he 
feels  at  liberty  to  slip  down  stairs  and  save  the  wine.  The 
Saints  say  that  it  is  no  wonder  ghosts  will  not  let  the 
palace  alone." 

Since  the  death  of  Brigham  Young  there  has  been  a 
great  change  in  the  Church  government.  During  his  life 
everything  appertaining  to  the  sect  was  tributary  to  him, 
especially  the  revenue.  Now,  however,  the  financial 
government  is  entrusted  to  four  elders  of  the  Church, 
viz. :  Hooper,  Eldridge,  Jennings  and  Little.  The  two 
former  were  once  residents  of  St.  Louis,  Captain  Hooper 
having  been  a  well-known  steamboat  captain  on  the  Missis- 
sippi river.  All  these  gentlemen  are  millionaires  and  share 
the  good  opinion  of  every  one  in  Utah,  whether  Mormon 
or  Gentile.  John  Taylor,  President  of  the  Church, 
and  successor  to  Brigham  Young,  has  accomplished  a  re- 
organization, and  now  confines  the  duties  of  president  to 
theological  management,  leaving  the  commerce  to  busi- 
ness men.  Taylor  is  a  very  clever  old  man,  nearly  eighty 
years  of  age,  and  always  makes  a  good  impression  on 
those  who  visit  him .  In  December,  1881 ,  he  took  another 
wife  in  the  person  of  a  widow  named  Barrett.  This  lady 
is  a  native  of  England,  and  became  a  convert  several 
years  ago.  She  came  to  Utah  with  five  hundred  other 
proselytes,  and  brought  with  her  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  which  she  realized  from  the  sale  of  her 
estates  in  England.  This  large  sum  of  money  was  a  mor- 
sel after  which  Brigham  thirsted  mightily,  and  he  courted 
the  widow  by  day  and  night,  inside  and  outside  the  tem- 
ple, but  she  would  not  wed  him  because  there  came  to  her 
ears  many  stories  concerning  the  ill-treatment  of  women 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  477 

in  the  President's  harem.  Taylor,  however,  conducted  a 
more  successful  siege,  for  after  battering  the  widow's 
ramparts  for  one  year,  she  capitulated  and  the  twain  are 
now  nine — the  President  having  had  seven  wives  before 
he  took  Mrs.  Barrett.  Inasmuch  as  by  the  Church  obli- 
gations all  wives  are  the  servants  of  their  husbands,  hold- 
ing their  lives  even  by  their  lordly  permission,  President 
Taylor  has  thus  made  a  princely  acquisition  to  his  for- 
tune, besides  getting  a  wife  who  has  some  indications  of 
being  both  buxom  and  good-looking. 

In  painful  contrast  to  the  sumptuousness  displayed  by 
Taylor  and  all  his  council  of  Church  bishops,  are  the 
working  members  who  contribute  their  possessions  so 
bounteously  that  the  official  drones  may  appear  in  lavish 
elegance.  Nine-tenths  of  the  communicants  are  wretch- 
edly poor ;  in  fact,  their  surroundings  are  little  less  than 
squalid  ;  especially  is  this  true  of  the  farming  class,  nearly 
all  of  whom  live  in  adobe  huts,  and  subsist  on  a  porridge 
of  the  meat  rinds,  as  it  were,  left  them  after  their  tithing s 
are  paid. 

It  is  in  the  country  about  Salt  Lake  that  the  evils  of 
polygamy  are  most  conspicuous,  for  there  we  find  families 
living  together  like  hogs.  A  man  may  have  five  or  six 
wives  and  a  score  of  children,  yet  they  all  frequently 
live  together  in  a  single  room,  and  practice  such  undis- 
guised sensuality  that  the  children  are  raised  up  utterly 
destitute  of  the  smallest  spark  of  modesty  or  virtue.  Is 
it  strange  that  in  such  an  indecent  state  of  society  every 
delicate  and  honorable  sense  of  feeling  is  suppressed? 
Not  only  can  licentiousness  be  charged  to  such  people, 
but  also  incest,  which  becomes  a  natural  product  of  this 
libidinous  association.  Here  are  two  examples,  from  the 
thousands  that  might  be  cited,  illustrative  of  polygamic 
marriages  and  indecent  domestic  associations  : 


478 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


In  1859,  a  family  consisting  of  a  mother  and  two 
young  children  arrived  at  Salt  Lake  City  from  Wales, 
the  father  remaining  at  home.  The  woman  became  the 
fourth  wife  of  George  Welles,  a  cousin  of  ex-Bishop 
Welles,  and  their  daughters  grew  up  to  be  handsome, 
proud  ladies,  refusing  all  polygamic  offers.  Some  time 
during  1881  a  young  man  went  to  Salt  Lake  City  with  a 
batch  of  con  verts  from  Shoreditch,  in  England,  and  being 
of  a  superior  education,  and  a  dashing  sketch  artist,  he  was 


A  RURAL  POLYGAMOUS   FAMILY. 


received  with  open  arms  by  the  elite  of  Mormon  circles, 
and  became  acquainted  with  Miss  Rebecca  Welles.  They 
loved  and  were  married  shortly  after,  and  it  is  now  posi- 
tively proved  that  they  are  brother  and  sister.  They  have  a 
child,  a  bright,  pretty  girl.  It  appears  that  the  father, 
after  the  wife  deserted  him  to  join  Brigham  Young  and 
his  flock,  became  the  object  of  remark  in  his  native  town 
in  Wales,  and  he  migrated  to  Shoreditch,  and  there,  as- 
suming another  name,  married — and  this  young  man  is 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  479 

his  son  by  his  second  wife.  The  marriage  of  his  mother 
to  Welles  changed  her  identity,  and  although,  as  haa 
since  become  known,  he  knew  of  his  step-sister  being  in 
the  United  States,  he  never  knew  of  his  step-mother' a 
existence  ;  and  hence  this  horrible  blunder,  an  offshoot  of 
polygamy.  Since  this  affair  has  become  public  there  is 
proof  that,  living  near  Ogden,  the  old  junction  of  the 
Central  Pacific  and  Union  Pacific  railroads,  is  a  man 
named  Joseph  Saunders,  who  has  not  only  married  his 
own  sister  and  had  children  by  her,  but  has  also  married 
his  mother's  younger  sister.  This  last  matter  came  near 
being  the  subject  of  a  public  investigation  four  years  ago, 
but  Mr.  Cannon,  then  a  member  of  Congress,  in^,  some 
way  suppressed  it. 

For  some  reason  there  is  a  prevalent  opinion  that  Mor- 
monism  is  disintegrating,  and  will  soon  become  extinct 
through  the  cankering  influence  of  its  own  fatal  vices. 
This  opinion  obtains,  doubtless,  because  it  is  the  asser- 
tion of  the  Mormons  themselves  ;  they  would  fain  create 
such  a  delusive  impression  in  order  to  produce  an  apathy 
among  their  opponents.  Many  persons,  strong  in  their 
opposition,  are  now  saying,  ''Let  the  Mormons  alone; 
their  religion  will  become  extinct  in  a  very  short  time, 
without  the  enforcement  of  any  law  contemplating  the 
suppression  of  polygamy." 

Nothing  is  more  fallacious  than  such  a  belief  ;  indeed,  it 
may  be  doubted  if  the  Mormon  Church  was  ever  before 
so  strong  or  flourishing  as  it  is  now,  as  will  be  seen  by 
the  facts  I  will  here  adduce  : 

During  the  past  year,  ending  January  1,  1882,  4,903 
emigrant  converts  arrived  at  Salt  Lake  City,  from  Eu- 
rope, of  which  number  3,000  were  women,  and  only 
280  men  who  could  read  and  write,  fifteen  being  edu- 
cated;  2,010  were  from  England,  Scotland  and  Wales, 


480  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

and  the  rest  from  Prussia.  Missionaries  are  now  at 
work  in  Sweden  and  Norway,  and  in  April  (1882)  three 
apostles  start  for  Russia. 

The  proportions  in  which  foreign  countries  have  con- 
tributed to  Mormonism  are  shown  in  the  following  figures . 

O       C  " 

which  are  compiled  from  the  censuses  oi  1870  and  1880  : 

1870.  1880. 

Bora  in  England 16,073  19,654 

Born  in  Scotland 2,391  3,201 

Bornin  Wales 1,783  2,390 

Born  in  Ireland 502  1,321 

Born  in  Denmark 4,967  7,791 

Bornin  Sweden 1,790  3,750 

Bornin  Norway 613  1,214 

Born  in  Switzerland 609  1,040 

Born  in  Germany 358  885 

England,  it  will  be  seen,  makes  the  chief  contribution 
to  Mormonism,  and  next  to  England  come  those  Scandi- 
navian countries  to  whose  people  the  Anglo-Saxon  stock 
is  closely  akin.  The  infrequency  of  Irish  or  German 
Mormons  is  very  remarkable,  and  the  Latin  races  of 
Europe  never  have  been  hospitable  to  Mormon  mission- 
aries. 

This  tabulated  statement  shows  an  increase  of  about 
thirty-four  per  cent,  in  the  aggregate  of  foreign  converts, 
while  proselyting  has  been  carried  on  in  America  with 
marvellous  success.  Reports  shows  that  during  last  Jan- 
uary more  than  three  hundred  converts  were  made  by  one 
Mormon  missionary  in  Texas,  while  almost  equal  success 
has  attended  the  apostles'  labors  in  Georgia  and  Tennes- 
see. In  December  last  (1881)  twelve  more  missionaries 
were  sent  out  from  Salt  Lake  to  preach  Mormon  gospel 
in  the  States,  and  on  the  day  of  their  departure,  while 
attending  services  in  the  new  tabernacle  at  Salt  Lake,  I 
heard  reports  from  four  missionaries  just  returned  from 
abroad,  in  which  it  was  declared  by  each,  that  at  no 
period  in  the  history  of  the  Church  was  it  so  successful  in 
adding  new  members  as  now. 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  481 

On  the  following  day,  Monday,  I  had  a  lengthy  inter- 
view with  Joseph  F.  Smith,  son  of  Hyruni,  the  prophet, 
and  second  counsellor  to  President  Taylor,  during  which 
he  admitted  that  the  Church  was  in  a  nourishing  condi- 
tion, with  a-  tithing  collection  of  one  million  dollars 
annually,  and  an  increase  of  about  twenty-five  hundred 
new  members  for  the  same  time,  in  addition  to  the 
natural  increase  within  the  Church,  which  may  be  esti- 
mated by  considering  the  following  facts  : 

There  are  now  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  Mor7 
mons  in  Utah  alone,  and  one-third  of  all  the  heads  of 
Mormon  families  are  practical  polygamists.  It  is  a  com- 
mon sight  to  see  as  many  as  forty  children  acknowledg- 
ing one  father,  so  that  their  propagating  functions  and 
condition  make  them,  in  one  respect,  the  most  populous 
people  on  the  earth.  This  natural  increase,  by  birth,  is 
quite  sufficient  to  prosper  the  Church,  while  it  must  be 
conceded  that  their  missionaries,  considering  the  number 
engaged,  make  more  converts  than  the  ministers  of  any 
other  denomination.  But  the  stakes  of  Zion  are  not  alone 
planted  in  Utah,  there  being  large  and  rapidly  growing 
colonies  of  Mormons  in  Idaho,  Wyoming,  Nevada,  Mon- 
tana and  Arizona  ;  besides,  there  is  scarcely  a  large  city 
in  the  United  States  that  does  not  contain  a  Mormon 
Church,  which  important  fact,  however,  is  not  generally 
known.  The  total  membership  in  the  United  States  is 
now  estimated  to  be  about  three  hundred  thousand. 


31 


482  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

MORMON  CLAIMS  TO  CHASTITY  CONSIDERED. 

THERE  is  a  claim  that  might  be  set  to  music  and  played 
constantly  in  all  Mormon  tabernacles  out  of  consideration 
for  a  needed  change  to  make  it  less  tiresome ;  at  every 
service  it  is  repeated,  and  in  every  discussion,  when  the 
argument  begins  to  uncomfortably  oppress  a  Mormon,  he 
is  sure  to  "  bob  up  serenely  "  with  the  same  stale,  thread- 
bare, a-million-times-repeated  statement,  that  "  Mormon 
women  are  more  chaste  than  the  females  of  any  other 
denomination,  and  we  are  the  purest  minded  people  on 
earth." 

George  Q.  Cannon,  that  great  apostle  of  the  Saints, 
who,  in  addition  to  having  five  wives,  and  a  million  of 
wealth,  possesses  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Congress, 
(or  did  until  his  disqualification  was  proved  in  March  1882, ) 
delivered  a  discourse  on  "celestial  marriage"  in  the 
Tabernacle  at  Salt  Lake,  October  9,  1869,  in  which, 
among  many  other  equally  false  statements,  he  said  : 

"  Another  good  effect  of  the  institution  here  is  that  you 
may  travel  throughout  our  entire  territory,  and  virtue 
prevails.  Our  young  live  virtuously  until  they  marry. 
But  how  is  it  under  the  monogamic  system?  Tempta- 
tions are  numerous  on  every  hand,  and  young  men  fall  a 
prey  to  vice.  An  eminent  medical  professor  in  New  York 
recently  declared,  while  delivering  a  lecture  to  his  class 
in  one  of  the  colleges  there,  that  if  he  wanted  a  man 
twenty-five  years  of  age,  free  from  a  certain  disease,  he 
would  not  know  where  to  find  him.  What  a  terrible 
statement  to  make !  In  this  community  no  such  thing 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  483 

exists.  Our  boys  grow  up  in  purity,  honoring  and  re- 
specting virtue  ;  our  girls  do  the  same,  and  the  great  mass 
of  them  are  pure.  There  may  be  impurities.  We  are 
human,  audit  would  not  be  consistent  with  our  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature  to  say  that  we  are  entirely  pure, 
but  we  are  the  most  pure  of  any  people  within  the  con- 
fines of  the  Republic.  We  have  fewer  un virtuous  boys 
and  girls  in  our  midst  than  any  other  community  within 
the  range  of  my  knowledge.  Both  sexes  grow  up  in 
vigor,  health  and  purity." 

If  such  a  statement  (which  is  repeated  by  every  Mor- 
mon old  enough  to  aspire  to  courtship)  were  suffered  to 
go  without  denial,  it  might  create  some  outside  sympathy 
for  the  practice  of  polygamy.  In  the  debate  between 
Rev.  J.  P.  Newman,  formerly  Chaplain  of  the  United 
States  Senate,  now  a  New  York  minister,  and  Orson 
Pratt,  on  the  "  Bible  and  Polygamy,"  which  occurred  in 
Salt  Lake  City,  August  12,  13  and  14,  1870,  Dr.  New- 
man was  vanquished  horse,  foot  and  dragoons ;  not  be- 
cause Pratt  was  so  much  more  learned,  but  because  Dr. 
Newman  did  not  consider  polygamy  and  its  effects  in 
Utah,  but  expended  all  his  ammunition  in  trying  to  prove 
that  the  Bible  never  sanctioned  polygamy.  Had  he 
trained  his  batteries  directly  upon  the  crying  abuse,  the 
lecherous  bishops,  and  the  utter  absence  of  virtue  among 
Mormons,  especially  as  thousands  of  examples  were  ob- 
truding themselves  upon  him,  he  might  have  saved 
Christianity  a  signal  defeat,  and  also  avoided  giving  the 
Mormons  an  opportunity  (through  the  distribution  of 
printed  tracts  containing  the  debate)  to  illustrate  how 
divinely  ordained  were  all  their  institutions. 

In  contradistinction  to  the  statement  made  by  Mr. 
Cannon,  I  affirm  that  no  people  on  earth  are  so  lacking 
in  virtue  as  the  Mormons.  It  has  also  been  stated  athou- 


484  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

sand  times  that  Salt  Lake  City  contained  no  drinking  sa- 
loons, poor  houses  or  brothels.  So  far  from  this  being 
true  the  place  has  at  least  fifty  saloons  and  about  twenty 
houses  of  ill-fame.  There  are  no  poor-houses  in  Salt 
Lake  City  supported  by  the  Church,  for  the  reason  that 
when  Mormons  become  unable  to  support  themselves  and 
contribute  tithings,  they  are  declared  apostates  and  with- 
out the  pale  of  ecclesiastical  influence,  so  that  poor- 
houses  are  not  needed. 

During  my  visit  to  the  Saints'  capital  in  Utah  I  was 
assured  by  many  of  the  most  prominent  citizens  of  the 
place — Gentiles  of  courses — that  prostitution  was  more 
prevalent  among  Mormon  than  among  Gentile  girls,  and 
that  in  proportion  to  population  Salt  Lake  City  had 
more  private  bawds  than  any  other  city  in  America.  This 
statement  I  have  no  means  of  verifying,  but  in  the  course 
of  my  peregrinations  after  night  in  the  place,  chaperoned 
by  a  distinguished  advocate,  in  estimating  the  number  of 
prostitutes  we  met  I  found  myself  like  the  Indian  who 
undertook  to  number  all  the  white  people  of  America  by 
cutting  a  notch  in  a  stick  for  each  person  he  saw.  All  of 
these  women  were  not.  Mormons,  but  nine-tenths  of  them 
had  been,  and  were  now  in  apostasy.  I  am  assured  that 
it  is  not  regarded  a  crime  for  a  Mormon  woman  to  sacri- 
fice her  virtue  to  one  in  the  Church,  but  should  her  illicit 
companion  prove  to  be  a  Gentile  the  circumstances  are  so 
altered  that  she  is  excommunicated  and  perhaps  given 
over  to  a  horrible  fate,  unless  she  should  have  frjends  in- 
terested in  her  existence. 

It  would  seem  wholly  superfluous  to  deny  that  the 
Mormons  are  specially  virtuous  in  the  face  of  a  general 
admission  of  their  polygamous  practices.  Can  it  be  pos- 
sible that  the  promiscuous  indulgences  of  a  father  with  a 
harem  of  women,  all  in  the  same  room  and  before  his 


SALT   LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  485 

children,  will  not  create  immodesty  and  lead  surely  to  a 
violation  of  virtue?  All  Mormons,  it  is  true,  are  not  so 
beastly  in  their  polygamous  relations,  for  there  are  some 
rich  enough  to  maintain  separate  residences  for  their  sev- 
eral wives  ;  but  there  is  still  the  example  of  jealousy  be- 
tween these  women,  and  a  betrayal  of  their  realization 
that  they  are  nothing  more  than  concubines  ;  in  addition 
to  all  this,  the  literature  which  Mormon  children  are  com- 
pelled to  read,  inculcating  religious  sentiments,  cannot 
fail  to  suggest  sensuality  which  youth  is  quick  to  compre- 
hend. In  fact,  there  is  everything  in  poly  gamy  to  excite 
the  passions  of  children  as  well  as  of  men,  and  if  these 
several  influences  do  not  induce  promiscuity  it  is  because 
nature  is  something  different  among  Mormons  to  what  it 
is  among  every  other  sect  and  race. 

In  conversation  with  an  old  in  an  named  Joseph  L.  Bar- 
foot,  curator  of  the  Salt  Lake  Museum,  I  asked  him  if  he 
were  a  polygamist,  and  if  so,  what  were  his  conclusions 
concerning  the  propriety  of  plural  marriages  in  general.  I 
had  already  talked  with  him  some  time  before  propound- 
ing this  question,  and  must  confess  that,  although  a  Mor- 
mon, he  is  certainly  a  learned  and  profound  man,  for 
whose  intelligence  and  frankness  I  will  ever  entertain  a 
very  high  regard.  He  is  evidently  about  seventy  or  more 
years  of  age,  and  badly  afflicted  with  asthma,  which  two 
facts,  operating  in  conjunction,  might  have  influenced 
him  to  make  such  a  candid  answer  to  my  inquiry,  though 
I  would  not  thus  accuse  him.  Said  he  : 

"I  am  living  in  polygamy,  having  two  wives,  but  by 
neither  of  whom  have  I  any  children.  A  man  at  my  age 
and  station  in  life  ought  to  be  competent  to  answer  your 
question  fully,  and  I  will  do  so  in  sincerity.  I  came  to 
Utah  from  England,  and  have  lived  here  since  1850  ;  my 
first  wife  I  married  in  the  old  country,  and  we  lived  very 


486  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

happily  together,  so  that  I  know  what  true  domestic  hap- 
piness consists  of.  After  I  became  a  Latter-day  Saint, 
or  Mormon — I  don't  care  which  you  call  it — a  course  of 
reasoning,  not  revelation,  convinced  me  that  polygamy 
was  a  law  of  nature.  I  did  not  stop  and  form  my  conclu- 
sion after  first  perceiving  that  all  animals  and  fowls  fol- 
low the  law  that  gives  one  male  to  several  females,  for 
this  reflection  only  suggested  to  me  a  consideration  of  the 
fact  that  the  procreative  functions  of  all  males  are  greater 
than  those  of  females,  which  I  soon  convinced  myself 
was  a  wise  provision,  in  that  it  permitted  of  a  more  rapid 
propagation  of  every  species.  I  was  next  reminded  of 
the  physiological  peculiarities  of  woman,  the  period  of 
lactatioa  after  child-birth,  and  her  seasons  of  physical 
disturbance,  to  which  man  is  not  subjected,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  remains  always  prepared  by  nature  to  fulfil  the 
highest  law.  Beyond  all  this,  which  was  fully  satisfying 
to  me  as  a  justification  for  polygamy,  I  had  the  Church 
ordinance  before  me,  which  I  regard  as  a  holy  injunction 
that  concern  for  my  salvation  forbids  me  to  disobey. 
These  reasons  led  me  to  espouse  another  wife  seventeen 
years  ago,  with  whom  I  am  still  living,  and  during  this 
time  I  have  had  an  experience  like  nearly  all  other  men 
living  in  a  polygamic  state.  It  must  be  admitted  that 
plural  wives  engender  more  or  less  domestic  discord,  for 
women  are  naturally  jealous,  and  generally  of  the  nervous 
temperament,  which  induces  rashness  and  many  incon- 
siderate acts.  My  two  wives  have  lived  together  in  a  de- 
gree of  reconciliation,  but  yet  I  am  astute  enough  to  see 
that  their  condition  has  not  been  an  entirely  happy  one  ; 
they  have,  however,  always  regarded  the  holy  ordinance 
of  polygamy  as  essential  to  their  spiritual  welfare,  and 
have  given  me  no  occasion  to  feel  discontented,  for  they 
have  been  both  dutiful  and  devoted  in  all  their  relations 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  487 

with  me.  But  I  must  say  this,  and  I  am  influenced  to 
such  a  confession  purely  by  the  full  understanding  of 
female  idiosyncrasies  in  their  marital  concerns,  that  if  I 
had  all  my  life  before  me,  with  the  experience  which  is 
now  mine,  I  would  not  marry  more  than  one  wife,  for  I 
am  convinced  that  polygamy  causes  much  unhappiness, 
and  also  prevents  a  proper  discipline  of  children  reared  in 
such  a  mixture  of  families,  where  jealousy  and  bickering 
are  a  natural  consequence." 

I  was  somewhat  astonished  at  the  frank  and  compre- 
hensive manner  in  which  Mr.  Barfoot  answered  my  ques- 
tion, for  it  could  hardly  be  expected  that  Mormons  would  so 
logically  condemn  their  dearest  in  stitution .  But  I  concluded 
to  continue  a  similar  investigation  in  higher  circles  of  the 
Church,  for  either  a  confirmation  or  denial  of  the  asser- 
tions which  my  learned  friend  had  just  made.  I  there- 
fore proceeded  directly  to  President  Taylor's  office,  where 
my  reception  was  very  courteous  by  the  private  secretary 
of  that  exalted  official.  President  Taylor  was  not  in, 
having  just  returned  from  St.  George,  in  Southern  Utah, 
where  he  had  the  day  previously  celebrated  his  nuptials 
with  the  auriferous  Widow  Barrett ;  the  baked  meats  or 
new  relation  had  proved  too  much  for  him,  and  he  was 
prostrated  with  some  indisposition,  the  full  nature  of 
which  I  deemed  it  useless  to  inquire  into.  But  the  Presi- 
dent's place  was  supplied  by  Joseph  F.  Smith,  his  chief 
representative,  and  a  missionary  named  Barnes,  who  had 
lately  brought  a  large  party  of  new  converts  to  Zion. 
With  these  I  began  a  conversation,  prefaced  by  Mr.  Bar- 
foot's  confession,  the  name,  however,  not  being  disclosed. 
I  was  also  careful  to  extol  the  commendable  sincerity 
which  induced  so  generously  frank  an  answer  to  my  in- 
quiry, and,  in  a  glowing  panegyric  on  Mr.  Barfoot,  I  an- 
ticipated any  aggravated  denial  which  Mr.  Smith  or  Mr. 


488 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 


Barnes  might  have  otherwise  been  disposed  to  make.  A 
very  short  conversation  with  Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  convinced 
me  that  he  was  anxious  to  avoid  committing  himself  to 


PRESIDENT  TAYLOR,    SUCCESSOR  TO  BRIGHAM  YOUNG. 

any  decided  opinion,  though  he  made  no  denial  of  Mr. 
Barf  oof  s  correct  interpretation  of  polygamy ;  pleading 
urgent  business  elsewhere,  Mr.  Smith  left  the  room,  and 
I  then  pressed  an  answer  from  Mr.  Barnes.  This  gentle- 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  489 

man  is  a  resident  of  Idaho,  and  fills  the  position  of  hus- 
band to  four  hearty,  good-looking  women,  so  he  said. 
He  related  a  preliminary  story  similar  to  that  already  told 
me,  but  his  conclusions  were  radically  different.  Said 
he: 

"I  went  into  polygamy,  not  because  my  sensual  nature 
suggested  it  as  a  means  for  the  gratification  of  the  lowest 
desires,  but  because  it  is  an  institution  of  saving  grace, 
just  like  the  ordinance  of  baptism  is  to  certain  denomina- 
tions the  fulfilment  of  a  divine  law.  I  know  it  is  popularly 
believed  among  our  opponents  that  polygamists  are 
actuated  by  the  unholiestof  passions,  and  that  our  religion 
is  based  upon  subordinated  virtue  ;  it  is  this  error  that  we 
have  to  contend  with  continually,  and  to  it  we  have  to 
acknowledge  all  the  unfounded  prejudice  that  so  un- 
reasonably prevails  against  us.  We  take  more  than  one 
wife  because  all  nature-has  set  the  example  ;  because  God 
ordained  it  by  revelation  to  Joe  Smith  ;  because  it  is  an 
ordinance  established  for  the  glorifying  of  mankind,  and 
because  by  its  practice  women  are  raised  up  at  the  judg- 
ment day  justified  for  fulfiling  the  law  of  multiplying  and 
replenishing  the  earth,  and  having  a  desire  unto  their 
husbands.  We  have  no  disposition  to  conceal  any  of  the 
operations  of  our  divine  laws,  hence  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
confirm  what  has  already  been  told  you  concerning  the 
discord  which  frequently  obtains  in  polygamous  families. 
But,  because  this  is  true,  I  do  not  consider  it  as  an  argu- 
ment against  polygamy  any  more  than  the  fact  that  there  are 
unhappy  monogamic  families  argues  against  the  marriage 
relation  generally.  Interference  with  the  institution  of 
marriage  involves  a  subversion  of  the  holiest  relations 
and  a  disorganization  of  society ;  you  may  be  united  to  a 
woman  because  there  is  a  reciprocal  endearment,  but  in 
consummating  this  relation  you  do  not  regard  it  as  a  re- 


490  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

ligious  duty ;  but  with  us  marriages  cannot  be  celebrated 
by  justices  of  the  peace  or  bishops,  because  we  recognize 
in  the  union  of  man  and  woman  a  divine  essence  oper- 
ating, hence  our  marriages  are  performed  only  by  an 
established  ecclesiastical  ordinance  and  tribunal  that 
impresses,  as  it  were,  with  God's  seal,  the  holy  bonds. 

"Suppose  that  Congress  should  enact  some  law — a 
bill  of  attainder  it  would  necessarily  be — dissolving  by 
force  all  the  polygamous  relations  now  existing  in  our 
Church.  Can  you  comprehend  the  result?  Why,  it 
would  legislate  into  illegitimacy  thousands  of  children 
now  being  supported  by  recognized  parents,  beside  bring- 
ing dishonor  upon  other  thousands  of  God-fearing  and 
upright  women.  It  would  be  as  a  brand  of  infamy  upon 
the  brow  of  our  women  and  children,  who  are  as  guiltless 
of  wrong  as  the  converts  to  baptism  are  who  undergo  im- 
mersion. I  cannot  believe  that  a  great  nation  like  ours 
will  ever  conceive  and  exact  such  an  iniquitous  measure." 

In  these  two  conversations  I  have  given  the  essence  of 
the  defence  that  Mormons  put  forward  in  their  arguments 
to  sustain  polygamy.  In  the  case  of  Mr.  Barfoot,  we 
have  an  acknowledgment  that  the  fundamental  principles 
of  bigamous  marriage  are  wrong,  for  he  admits  that  with 
his  present  experience  he  would  not  again  take  more  than 
one  wife.  Mr.  Barnes,  however,  who  is  less  than  forty 
years  of  age,  and  therefore  with,  the  fires  of  his  animal 
nature  undiminished,  declared  that  with  his  experience  he 
would  again  go  into  the  polygamous  state,  because  he  re- 
gards it  as  a  religious  condition.  Here  is  a  conflict  of 
conclusions,  which  may  readily  be  accounted  for  by  con- 
sidering the  disparity  of  age  between  the  two,  and  we  are 
almost  forced  to  accept  this  as  a  reason,  because  it  so 
well  accords  with  human  nature.  The  manner  in  which 
Mormon  wives  are  universally  treated  is  sufficient  of  itself 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  491 

to  refute  the  idea  that  the  Church  established  plural  mar- 
riage as  an  ordinance  necessary  to  salvation,  for  it  has 
operated  only  to  accomplish  the  subserviency  and  degra- 
dation of  women,  and  excite  a  beastly  lust  among  the 
men  ;  more  than  this,  polygamy  does  not  appeal  to  the 
intelligence  of  women,  who,  indeed,  reject  it  at  heart,  so' 
that  in  spirit  they  are  rebellious,  and  therefore  cannot  be 
justified  for  practicing  it;  in  this,  then,  polygamy  is  not 
a  virtue  among  women,  even  by  the  Mormons'  own  argu- 
ment ;  for,  doing  a  thing  outwardly  that  the  heart  and 
conscience  revolt  at  can  never  be  regarded  as  a  virtue, 
but  rather  a  grievous  sin. 

Now,  in  answer  to  the  affected  abhorrence  with  which 
Mormons  so  piously  declaim  against  any  effort  looking  to 
the  suppression  of  polygamy,  on  the  ground  that  it  would 
make  Mormon  wives  mistresses  of  their  husbands,  and 
all  offspring  of  such  illegitimate  children,  let  this  fact 
be  considered :  There  is  a  statutory  law  in  this  country 
against  treason,  which  prescribes  severe  penalties  for  its 
commission  ;  there  are  also  laws  in  every  State  against 
bigamy,  making  it  a  felonious  crime,  and  in  its  punish- 
ment the  results,  appertaining  to  mistresses  or  offspring, 
are  never  considered  ;  so,  also,  a  man  who  commits  mur- 
der may  be  hung ;  in  which  case  neither  law  nor  society 
regards  the  stigma  he  may  leave  upon  his  family.  If  a 
religious  sect  should  be  established  in  this  country  that 
rendered  up  human  sacrifices,  in  pursuance  of  their  ordi- 
nances, the  law  would  very  properly  apprehend  those 
who  officiated  at  such  rites,  and  try  them  for  murder, 
even  though  the  victims  had  voluntarily,  through  relig- 
ious fanaticism,  proffered  themselves  subjects  for  the  sac- 
rifice. There  is  also  another  general  law,  viz.  :  against 
undue  influence  ;  a  woman  may  be  alienated  from  her 
husband  through  the  influence  of  some  relative  or  lover ; 


402  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

the  law  regards  this  as  a  misdemeanor,  upon  which  a 
civil  action  for  damages  will  lie  ;  so,  also,  is  there  a  like 
prohibition  against  every  act  that  tends  to  the  injury  of 
society,  whether  the  injury  be  perpetrated  maliciously  or 
in  pursuance  of  some  supposed  revelation.  We  do  not 
live  in  an  age  of  revelations  or  miracles,  and  every 
Church,  like  every  tub,  must  stand  on  its  own  bottom  ; 
it  must  also  be  judged  like  individuals,  by  its  works, 
rather  than  its  theories,  for  the  roads  to  salvation  appear 
so  complex  and  variable  in  these  latter  days,  that  the 
Nation  cannot  afford  to  make  discriminations  in  favor 
of  any  particular  route. 

Another  fact  which  the  Mormons  construe  favorable  to 
their  communistic  licenses,  is  that  they  withdrew  from 
the  States  and  founded  their  institutions  in  a  far  distant 
territory,  where  they  reasonably  hoped  molestation  would 
not  reach  them.  It  is  true  that  they  made  Utah  blossom 
into  fruitfulness,  and  have  given  many  evidences  of  a 
satisfied  and  prosperous  colony  ;  for  this,  in  the  abstract, 
they  deserve  much  credit,  which  I  am  far  from  withhold- 
ing ;  but  there  is  another  fact  in  this  connection  which 
Mormons  affect  never  to  have  discovered,  yet  it  is 
one  that  the  Nation  must  regard.  While  they  isolated 
themselves  so  that  their  immediate  examples  were  not 
obtruded  upon  civilization  in  the  States,  yet  they  have 
ever  been  ambitious  for  an  extension  of  power,  and  to 
this  end  they  have  sent  out  missionaries  who  constantly 
scatter  the  seeds  of  abomination  over  the  whole  country. 
This  Church,  therefore,  may  be  likened  unto  a  man  who 
withdraws  from  civilization  and  establishes  himself  in 
some  remote  nook  of  our  great  domain,  and  there  pre- 
pares obscene  literature  which  he  manages  to  distribute 
through  the  mails.  His  position  is  isolated,  but  does 
that  affect  his  influence  for  evil,  so  long  as-  he  employs 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  493 

available  means  for  utilizing  his  iniquitous  occupation? 
In  the  year  1851  the  Mormons  sought  to  make  a  State 
out  of  a  part  of  Utah,  to  which  they  gave  the  name 
"Deseret,"  and  then  applied  for  admission  into  the 
Union.  This  application  was  rejected  by  Congress  be- 
cause of  the  practices  which  were  well  known  to  prevail 
among  Mormons.  Had  the  territory  of  Deseret  been  ad- 
mitted as  a  State  then  the  Saints  would  have  declared 
their  right  to  commonwealth  sovereignty,  and  established 
themselves  under  State  rights  to  inalienable  privileges. 
They  could  have  chosen  their  own  legislatures  and  judi- 
ciary, so  that  no  power  of  the  Nation  could  have  reached 
them  ;  they  might  have  murdered  every  Gentile  that  set 
foot  in  the  territory,  taken  captive  every  female  that 
trenched  upon  their  soil,  or,  in  short,  committed  any 
depredation  not  in  conflict  with  the  United  States  stat- 
utes, and  yet  escaped  punishment ;  having  their  own  courts 
and  enacting  their  own  laws,  with  no  outside  power  of 
veto,  they  would  have  occupied  a  position  so  independent 
that  who  can  estimate  their  influence  for  working  evil  in 
the  Republic 

By  the  refusal  of  Congress  to  admit  Deseret  as  a  State, 
which  territory  certainly  had  the  required  number  of  in- 
habitants, the  Nation  assumed  to  control  absolutely  the 
Territory  of  Utah,  and  hence  Congress  is  directly  charge- 
able with  every  demoralizing  act  committed  by  Mormons 
that  is  in  conflict  with  the  United  States  statutes.  In 
1862  there  was  a  law  passed  by  Congress  making  potyg- 
amy  a  felony,  but  for  twenty  years  it  has  lain  dormant 
through  criminal  negligence.  In  the  National  legislature 
there  are  now  a  score  of  bills  contemplating  the  suppres- 
sion of  polygamy,  because  it  is  claimed  that  the  Poland  law 
of  1862  is  not  sufficiently  comprehensive.  But  I  under- 
take to  say  that  Utah  can  be  purged  thoroughly  by  an 


494  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

effective  application  of  the  law' now  in  force.  It  is  a  uni- 
versal cry  that  the  great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  convict- 
ing these  polygamists  is  in  obtaining  evidence  to  estab- 
lish the  proof  of  plural  marriages.  I  am  aware  that  no 
man  can  be  forced  to  criminate  himself ,  and  that  it  is  next 
to  impossible  to  secure  witnesses  within  polygamous 
households,  through  the  incompetency  of  a  wife's  testi- 
mony, etc.,  but  I  also  know  that  confession  is  competent 
evidence,  and  by  a  very  little  liberality  of  the  courts,  in 
admitting  witnesses  to  testify  to  confessions  made  to 
them  by  polygamists,  nearly  every  bigamist  in  Utah  can 
readily  be  convicted. 

So  little  regard  have  the  Mormons  for  the  law  of  1862 
that  they  publicly  acknowledge  their  polygamous  inter- 
course, and  Geo.  Q.  Cannon  has  had  the  audacity  to 
declare  in  Washington  City  that  he  has  five  wives.  So 
it  is  with  every  official  in  the  Church,  every  one  of  whom 
is  a  polygamist ;  they  proclaim  and  are  proud  to  admit 
their  guilt.  Are  these  confessions  competent  testimony? 
Most  assuredly.  Then  why  are  there  no  convictions? 
Let  the  Government  authorities  make  answer. 

I  am  frank  to  admit  that  there  might  be  some  new 
remedies  applied  by  Congress  to  cure  the  country  of  this 
polygamous  cancer,  without  laying  the  Nation  liable  to  a 
charge  of  oppression  on  account  of  religious  belief.  The 
Gentiles  of  Utah  largely  favor  a  government  of  the  terri- 
tory by  a  board  of  commissioners,  to  supersede  the  terri- 
torial legislature,  with  like  powers  as  those  that  govern 
the  District  of  Columbia.  Such  a  remedy  might  be 
effective  in  eradicating  polygamy  from  Utah,  but  a  more 
universal  panacea  is  required — one  that  will  operate  with 
the  same  effect  in  all  the  territories,  for  Mormonism  is  by 
no  means  confined  to  Utah. 

Since  the  anti-polygamy  agitation  has  assumed  national 


SALT    LAKE    CITY POLYGAMY.  495 

importance,  there  has  been  inaugurated  in  Salt  Lake  City 
a  counter  expression  of  sentiment  that  is  stirring  the 
Church  with  terrific  force.  Throughout  the  months  of 
February  and  March  (1882)  daily  meetings  were  held  in 
the  Tabernacle  to  denounce  the  prejudices  of  Gentiles, 
and  apostles  were  sent  out  through  all  the  territories  with 
petitions  asking  Congress  to  leave  the  question  of  polygamy 
with  the  territorial  legislatures  ;  many  Gentiles  were  in- 
fluenced to  sign  this  petition  through  threats  of  commer- 
cial ostracism  should  they  refuse.  But  the  active  pillars 
of  the  Church  did  not  rely  wholly  upon  petitionary 
counteraction,  for,  understanding  some  of  the  more 
potent  influences  that  act  so  specifically  and  effectually 
in  Washington  City,  they  commissioned  four  of  the 
handsomest  and  most  seductive  women  in  the  territory  to 
proceed,  under  escort  of  several  bishops  having  with 
them  heavy  money  bags  of  the  Church,  to  the  National 
Capital  and  give  Congress  the  benefit  of  their  several 
persuasive  means.  These  women  are  endowed  by  nature 
with  an  abundance  of  excellent  attributes  which  well 
qualify  them  for  lobbyists,  while  the  bishops  are  author- 
ized to  buy  all  the  poor  Congressmen  they  may  find  for 
sale.  Public  indignation  is  so  great  against  all  Mormons, 
however,  that  even  legislative  knaves  will  be  forced  by  it 
to  do  something  to  relieve  our  nation  of  the  barbarous 
polygamous  blot  that  now  stains  its  escutcheon. 

On  the  I4th  of  March  (1882),  what  is  known  as  the  Edmunds  Anti-Polyg 
amy  Bill  passed  both  houses  of  Congress,  a  synopsis  of  which  may  be  thus 
briefly  stated :  It  is  prospective  as  to  plural  marriages,  and  provides  that 
any  person  who,  in  a  territory,  shall  hereafter  marry  more  than  one  wife,  or 
husband,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  bigamy,  and  punished  with  a  fine  of 
$500  or  imprisonment  for  five  years;  but  it  provides  also  that  if  any  male 
person  in  a  territory  hereafter  cohabits  with  more  than  one  woman,  he  shall 
be  guilty  of  misdemeanor  and  subjected  to  a  fine  of  $300,  or  imprisonment 
for  not  less  than  six  months.  In  prosecutions  for  bigamy,  or  unlawful  co- 
habitation, it  debars  polygamists  or  persons  living  in  unlawful  cohabitation, 
from  being  jurymen;  and  it  debars  also  persons  who  believe  these  practices 
right.  It  prohibits  polygamists  from  voting  and  from  holding  office.  It  le- 
gitimates all  children  born  of  polygamous  marriages  prior  to  January  I,  1883. 

The  constitutionality  of  this  law  will  undoubtedly  be  contested.     There  are 
other  bills  of  like  character  still  pending. 


NEW   ORLEANS. 


NEGRO  LIFE  AND  SUPERSTITIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

COLORED  LIFE  IN  ITS  HAPPIEST  PHASES. 

THERE  is  a  charm  connected  with  the  traditions  of 
slavery  days  that  rings  in  every  Southerner's  ears  like  a 
symphonius  cadence,  sighing  with  seolian  swells,  bringing 
up  dreamy  wi  11-' o-the- wisps  of  other  times,  and  some- 
times starting  tears  of  a  sad  remembrance.  "Aunt 
Chloe"  and  "Uncle  Joe"  are  personalities  that  seem  now 
to  be  an  incarnation  of  humble  submission,  patient  devo- 
tion, sympathetic  hearts,  and  all  the  good  traits  of 
human  nature.  Born  and  reared  in  the  North,  yet  I  have 
had  enough  of  Southern  association  to  comprehend  all  the 
peculiarities  of  that  section  ;  to  me  the  colored  race  was 
always  a  delightful  study ;  their  freedom  from  manner- 
isms, joyous  natures,  religious  fanaticism,  and  untutored 
ways,  have  always  acted  upon  my  senses  like  a  beautiful 
picture  that  strikes  the  eye  after  it  has  wandered  over  a 
thousand  dull  pages  of  philosophical  composition.  Every- 
thing is  estimated  by  comparison  ;  a  rose  is  beautiful  be- 
side a  thistle,  but  it  loses  its  loveliness  when  compared 
with  the  cereus  ;  so,  also,  are  rubies  pretty,  until  their 
lustre  fades  before  the  diamond ;  human  nature  has  its 
497  32 


498  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

comparisons  no  less  striking,  and  more  variable.  A 
handsome  face  attracts  our  admiration,  but  an  honest 
heart  draws  us  like  a  magnet  close  in  its  embrace.  It  is 
with  this  conception  of  life  in  all  its  phases  that  I  am 
drawn  back,  to  revive  in  memory  an  attachment  once 
cherished  for  Southern  slaves,  and  to  write  of  that  race 
that  has  so  much  kinship  with  the  primeval  sons  of  man. 

Every  cotton-field  and  canebrake  in  that  belt  of  semi- 
tropic  States  is  like  a  romance  of  song  and  story ;  the 
very  soil  seems  rich  with  melody,  and  moonlight  nights 
were  apparently  made  to  remind  us  of  the  olden-time 
'possum  hunts,  log  house  revivals,  and  grand  frolics, 
which  were  a  part  of  slave  life  as  much  as  if  the  colored 
race  had  a  patent  right  upon  such  amusements. 

New  Orleans  has  always  been  reckoned  the  negro 
Mecca,  for  those  who  have  never  visited  that  city  are 
hoping  to  do  so  before  they  die.  And  this  wish  is  quite 
a  natural  one,  for  where  can  be  found  so  many  things 
pleasing  to  the  colored  man' s  tastes  and  ambitions  ;  rich 
planters,  liveried  servants,  fine  people,  high  stakes  and 
everybody  a  gambler,  steamboats  lining  the  landing,  with 
negroes  covering  the  levee,  while  fun  and  frolic  invite 
them  at  every  corner ;  where  the  sun  perpetually  kisses 
an  atmosphere  of  sensuous  delight,  and  where  all  nature 
has  formed  a  combination  with  industry  to  make  a  darkey 
paradise.  "  Where  there  are  rich  masters,  negroes  get 
second  choice,"  i.  e.,  they  are  pretty  sure  to  have  a 
harvest  of  second-hand  clothes  ;  so,  also,  "  a  lucky  gam- 
bler never  forgets  the  servants."  Everything,  therefore, 
about  New  Orleans  conspires  to  make  the  colored  folks 
happy ;  for,  with  "  dressed  over  "  clothes,  and  plenty  of 
company,  little  remains  to  complete  their  aspirations. 

The  place  to  study  negro  character  under  amusing  cir- 
cumstances is  not  in  the  cotton  or  sugar-cane  field ,  or  the 


NEW   ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS. 


499 


500  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

usual  pursuits  followed  in  city  or  country,  but  at  their 
revival  meetings,  which  serve  to  bring  out  all  latent  na- 
ture as  well  as  to  illustrate  their  dominant  passions,  fer- 
vency, emotion,  superstition  and  ambition.  No  other 
race  of  people  can  be  so  thoroughly  agitated  by  religious 
enthusiasm,  and  yet  the  slaves  rarely  desecrated  their 
worship  by  infamous  sacrifices,  such  as  their  progenitors 
and  original  natives  have  always  been  guilty  of.  This 
advance  to  a  merciful  sentiment  is,  of  course,  due  to  an 
acceptance  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  which  has  divorced 
all  people  from  barbarity,  though  traces  of  primitive 
teachings  and  practices  appear  in  all  sects. 

A  religious  revival  among  "colored  folks,"  as  they  are 
pleased  to  call  themselves,  is  generally  a  semi-annual  oc- 
currence and  usually  becomes  a  literal  feast  of  both  soul 
and  body.  I  have  attended  hundreds  of  these  enthusias- 
tic meetings,  and  many  times  have  been  spiritually  moved 
by  the  earnest,  impassioned,  soul-stirring  eloquence  of  the 
colored  preachers,  who  appear  to  speak  through  an  in- 
spiration that  pervades  their  entire  audience. 

I  call  to  mind  a  service  of  this  character  held  in  a  large 
tabernacle  that  stood  some  years  ago — and  perhaps 
still  stands — in  the  western  suburbs  of  New  Orleans.  I 
chanced  to  be  in  the  city  at  the  time,  and  attended 
through  a  curiosity  which  I  have  always  exhibited  for  the 
ways  and  superstitions  of  the  black  people.  It  was  eve- 
ning service,  and  knowing  there  would  be  a  large  attend- 
ance I  went  early  so  as  to  obtain  an  eligible  position  for 
hearing  the  sermon  and  also  watching  the  audience. 
White  folk  are  always  heartily  welcomed  by  negroes,  and 
I  was  given  such  courteous  attention  that  my  sense  of 
obligation  became  burdensome.  After  taking  a  seat  to 
the  right  of  the  pulpit,  I  watched  the  stream  of  people  as 
they  filed  in,  which  presented  such  grotesque  features 


NEW  ORLEANS NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      501 

that  but  for  the  sacred  occasion,  and  profuse  kindness  I 
had  received,  nothing  could  have  restrained  a  demonstra- 
tion of  my  amusement.  A  majority  of  the  congregation 
appeared  to  be  women  of  monstrous  proportions,  decked 
out  in  a  fluttering  apparel  of  red  bandanna  handkerchief  s 
for  millinery,  and  vallance  curtain  goods  for  dresses. 
Their  ambling  gait,  too,  added  to  a  tout  ensemble  that  was 
at  once  highly  colored,  rose- watered  and  weirdly  ludi- 
crous ;  many  of  these  rolling,  well  fatted  females  carried 
children  in  their  arms,  and  if  there  is  anything  in  nature 
more  whimsically  grotesque  than  a  negro  baby  it  has 
never  fallen  under  my  observation.  The  large  room  soon 
filled  with  a  gathering  of  colored  people  of  all  ages  and 
descriptions,  when  quiet  having  succeeded,  a  blessed  old 
soul  of  about  seventy  winters,  with  bald  crest,  green  eye- 
goggles,  and  high  pointed  "collar,  arose  with  great  dig- 
nity and  said  : 

"  Bredren  and  si  stern  :  I  will  read  fo'  yo'  enlighten- 
ment dis  ebening,  from  Isayah,  chaptah  XVIII,  consarnin' 
yo'  anshant  country,  Ethiopia,  as  follows  : 

" « 1.  Woe  to  de  Ian'  wid  wings,  which  is  beyond  de 
ribbers  ob  Ethiopia : 

"  '  2.  Dat  sendeth  ambassadors  by  de  sea,  eben  in  ves- 
sels ob  bullrushes  upon  de  waters,  sayin',  Go,  ye  swift 
messenjahs,  to  a  nation  scattered  and  peeled,  to  a  people 
terribel  frum  dar  beginnin'  hiderto  ;  a  nation  meted  out 
an'  trodden  down,  whose  Ian'  de  ribbers  hab  sp'iled. 

66  <  3.  All  ye  inhabitants  ob  de  world,  an'  dwellers  on  de 
yearth,  see  ye,  when  he  lifteth  up  an  ensign  on  de  moun- 
tains ;  an'  when  he  bloweth  a  trumpet,  hear  ye. 

"  <  4.  Fo'  de  Lawd  said  unto  me,  I  will  take  my  rest, 
an'  I  will  considah  my  dwellin'  place  like  a  clar  heat  upon 
yarbs,  an'  like  a  cloud  ob  dew  in  de  heat  ob  harvest. 

"  «  6.  Fo'  afore  de  harvest,  when  de  bud  is  parfeck,  an' 


502  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

de  sour  grape  is  ripenin'  in  de  flowah,  he  shall -cut  off  de 
sprigs  wid  primin'  hooks,  an'  take  away  an'  cut  down  de 
branches. 

"  '  6.  Dey  shall  be  left  togeddah  unto  de  fowls  ob  de 
mountains,  an'  to  de  beasts  ob  de  y earth :  an'  de  fowls 
shall  summer  on  dem  ;  an'  all  de  beasts  ob  de  yearth  shall 
winter  on  dem. 

"'7.  In  dat  time  shall  de  present  be  brought  to  de 
Lawd  ob  hosts  ob  a  people  scattered  an'  peeled,  an'  from 
a  people  terribel  from  dar  beginnin'  hiderto  ;  a  nation 
meted  out  an'  trodden  under  foot,  whose  Ian'  de  ribbers 
hab  sp'iled,  to  de  place  ob  de  name  ob  de  Lawd  ob  hosts, 
de  mount  obZion.'  ' 

Having  concluded  reading  the  chapter,  the  minister 
bowed  his  head  reverently,  saying,  "  Let  us  all  unite  in 
a  talk  wid  God,"  whereupon  he  delivered  himself  of  the 
following  practical  prayer : 

"  Oh,  Lawd,  dese  ar  awful  times  among  do  people, 
'case  dey  has  bin  a  wrastlin'  wid  sin  jis'  like  two  niggers 
what  is  a  tryin'  to  trow  one  an  udder  ;  and  dey  has  got  so 
well  acquainted  wid  de  debbil  dat  dey  treat  him  to  water- 
millions  all  week  da}rs  and  feed  him  on  roast  turkey  ebery 
Sunday.  Oh,  Lawd,  come  down  in  dy  obsarwations, 
right  inter  de  middle  of  dis  congregation,  for  de  debbil 
is  here  a  leanin'  ob  his  head  on  de  breastes  ob  de  women 
and  a  pickin'  juber  in  de  years  ob  de  men.  Come  down, 
oh,  Lawd,  and  cotch  dis  debbil  by  his  crotch  and  fling 
him  outen  dis  house,  and  show  dis  people  dat  you  got  a 
muscle  in  yo'  arm  stronger  dan  de  back-spring  ob  a 
mule's  Line  legs.  Help  yo'  sarvint  to  open  de  eyes  ob 
dese  niggers  and  show  'em  de  plains  ob  Abraham ?  for 
dey  can't  see  no  fudder  dan  a  blin'  man  leadin'  ob  a  dog 
in  day-time,  but  make  dar  way  straight  to  de  hen-roosts 
at  night.  Pour  out  dy  oil,  oh  Lawd,  on  dar  heads,  and 


NEW  ORLEANS NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.       503 

grease  'em  well,  for  de  way  dey  is  a  goin'  on  now  dey 
will  find  de  gate  ob  hebben  so  small  dat  dey  got  'o  be 
mighty  slick  to  squeeze  f roo  ;  frow  dy  lasso  about  dar 
necks  an'  yank  'em  into  de  fold  ob  Jesus,  for  dey  is  like 
a  flock  ob  sheep  what  has  lost  dar  bell-wedder,  an'  ar  a 
jumpnV  about  like  a  lot  ob  grasshoppers  skared  up  by  a 
ginny  hen.  Bress  dy  sarvint,  and  make  all  dose  what 
hears  him  git  down  on  dar  morry  bones  in  prawer,  an' 
keep  'em  dar  until  dey  let  go  ob  de  debbil.  Show  'em  de 
fire  ob  hell-fire,  an'  den  turn  dar  eyes  up  to  dem  golden 
gates  what  stan's  wide  open  to  de  chariot  road  dat  leads 
straight  froo  de  orchawd  to  dy  big  house,  an'  to  dee  we 
ar  a  gwine  to  gib  all  de  gelory.  AMEN." 

During  prayer  the  congregation  were  all  on  their  knees, 
and  at  frequent  intervals  gave  expression  to  their  spiritual 
agitation  by  groans  of  "  Amen  ! "  "  gelory  !  "  "  bress  de 
Lawd  !  "  "  dat's  so  !  "  etc.  There  was  considerable  flut- 
ter occasioned  by  arising  from  their  devotions,  so  the 
minister  waited  some  while  for  quiet  to  be  restored,  after 
which  he  gave  out  a  familiar  hymn  by  lines,  which  was 
sung  with  much  feeling  and  melody.  He  then  proceeded 
with  his  discourse  by  again  referring  to  the  Bible  chapter 
he  had  read,  which  he  took  as  a  text,  and  proceeded  to 
preach  upon  it  as  follows  : 

"Fo'  de  'struction  ob  dis  audience  I  will  say,  dat 
Ethiopia  is  de  nation  dat  once  belonged  to  de  colored 
people  ;  it  is  de  place  whar  all  yo'  gran'fadders  youst  to 
lib,  fo'  you  recommembah  whar  de  good  book  says  dat 
de  Ethiopian  cayn't  change  he  skin.  Ob  course  he  cayn't, 
kase  nigger  was  made  by  de  Lawd  in  de  dark  ob  de  moon, 
befoah  dah  war  any  sun,  or  stars  in  de  hebbens  ;  but  de 
white  man,  he  war  made  awfter  de  sun  got  up  above  de 
trees  on  he  fust  roun',  so  dat  he  complexshun  war 
mighty  different ;  but  you  all  know  whar  de  good  book 


504  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

says  ag'in  dat  de  fus'  shall  be  las',  and  de  las'  shall  be 
f us' ,  so  dis  is  why  niggers  is  now  behin'  de  white  folks  ; 
but  it  sha'  n't  make  no  difference  wid  dis  people  awfter 
Gabriel  turns  de  corner  ob  hebben  bio  win'  ob  his  horn  to 
wake  all  de  dead  ;  goin'  under  de  groun'  bleaches  nigger 
like  whitewash,  so  dat  in  de  las'  day  ob  de  resurrection 
nobody  can  tell  nigger  from  white  man,  kase  dey  is  all 
alike. 

"  Yo'  will  obsarve  by  a  readin'  ob  detex'  dat  de  Lawd 
promises  woe  to  dem  niggers  what  goes  out  to  sea  in  dog- 
boats,  skiffs  an'  canoes  made  outen  bullrushes,  bekase 
nobody  but  de  debbil  would  temp'  any  body  to  de  fool- 
ishness ob  tryin'  sich  a  little  boat  'mong  de  big  waves  ob 
de  ocean.  But  what  de  Lawd  means  in  dis  obsarwation 
is,  dat  when  nigger  er  white  man  tries  to  do  mor'n  dar 
eddication  has  provided  fer,  den  dey  is  shore  to  git 
swamped,  and  de  debbil  will  ketch  'em  as  dey  sink. 

"Now  yo'  know  dat  all  Ethiopia  war  trodden  down 
under  de  foot  ob  mankynd,  'kase  we  is  a  standin'  right 
squar'  on  de  f ac' ,  but  I  tell  you  dar  haint  many  what 
knows  how  de  ole  folks,  yo'  gran'f  adders  ob  posterity, 
suffered  in  dem  olden  times  when  Abr'am  war  totin'  wa- 
tah  an'  a  feedin'  calfs  fo'  Laban.  In  dem  days  de  nig- 
gers got  so  wicked,  jist  about  like  yo'  all  is  now,  dat  he 
bro't  de  Isra'lites  down  on  'em.  An'  what  did  dey  do? 
Wy,  dey  jist  kotched  dem  bad  colored  people  an'  hung 
'em  up  by  de  jaw  on  long  hooks  ;  den  dey  strung  'em  on  a 
ridge-pole  like  hogs,  an',  de  great  Lawd,  howde  Israelites 
did  peel  dem  niggers !  Ouch !  it  makes  de  skin  crawl 
all  'roun'  on  my  back  now,  an'  I  can  feel  de  knife  a  rip- 
pin'  down  my  body,  an'  de  pinchers  a  pullin'  atde  strips 
jes'  like  skinnin'  a  catfish.  But  law,  w'y  dat  haint  nuffin 
to  what  de  Lawd  hab  consaberated  fo'  yo'  folks  dat  ar 
still  in  de  back-yard  wid  de  debbil.  Yaas,  yo'  t'ink  de 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  505 

debbil  am  a  mighty  good  fellah  now,  'kase  he  haint 
showed  yo'  his  toastin'  fork  nor  his  gridir'n  yet,  but  a- 
hin'  yo'  back  he  is  a  smackin'  ob  his,  lips  an'  a  sayin'  : 

"  '  Good,  good  !  yah,  yah  !  dar's  lots  ob  grease  in  dem 
niggers,  an'  dey'll  make  fine  soap  to  wash  up  de  blood 
on. hell's  floah.' 

"Afore  nex'  harvest  how  many  ob  you  stiff-necked 
sinners  will  dar  be  left  wid  a  chance  fo'  fo'gib'ness? 
How  many  will  dar  be  still  a  eatin'  sour  grapes  on  de 
outside  ob  hebben,  an'  refusin'  to  walk  into  God's 
orchawd  wharyou  don't  need  no  long  pole  nor  step-ladder 
to  gedder  de  sweet  fruit? 

"  Dein  what  rejects  de  gospel,  an'  spits  in  de  Lawd's 
face,  like  you  uus  am  a  doin',  will  be  left  like  de  good 
book  says,  to  fatten  de  fowls  ob  de  mountains,  an'  de 
beasts  ob  de  yearth  ;  you'll  be  peeled  by  de  hand  ob  God 
Almighty,  an'  yo'  bones  froun  down  to  de  debbil,  who 
will  burn  yo'  soul  wid  dem.  Den,  when  de  trumpet 
blows,  you'll  raise  up  on  yo'  elbow  in  hell  an'  say  : 
4  Hyar,  Lawd,  sen'  down  a  laddah,  fo'  my  finger-nails 
ar  all  wown  off  a  scratching  an'  I  cay  n't  git  out.' 

"  But  de  Lawd  will  answer,  wid  a  frown  on  his  face 
like  a  alligator's  in  cold  wedder :  <  Lay  down  dar,  you 
black  niggers,  in  dem  coals  ob  fiah  ;  dey  haint  no  huwp 
up  hyar  fo'  you  to  blow  on,  an'  'sides,  only  decent  folks 
is  allowed  in  de  kingdom.  Gib  'em  some  moah  hot  lead 

O 

to  drink,  Mr.  Debbil,  'case  I  specks  dey  is  a  gittin'  pooty 
dry.' 

"  Now,  I  wants  to  know  what  you  all  comes  hyar  fo'  ; 
did  you  fellahs  over  dar  in  de  lef '  wing  jist  come  'long 
to  help  de  gals  fin'  dar  way  to  meetin'  ?  and  did  you  ole 
folks,  what  ought  to  hab  one  foot  in  de  grave  and  de 
udder  in  hebben,  come  'long  jist  to  see  how  de  young 
folks  do  dar  coatin'  ?  Ef  you  did,  look  out  fo'  de  blasts 


50G  JUYSTEUIKS    AXD    MISERIES. 

ob  hell,  fo'  de  debbil  is  a  fixin'  a  mighty  big  'splosion 
under  yo'  feet  an'  he's  gwiue  to  touch  it  off  some  day 
when  de  Lawd  haiut  a  lookin'.  When  de  blow  outdo 
come  it  am  agvviue  to  send  you  up  jist  high  'nough  to  see 
hebben  and  de  angels,  den  you  gwine  to  fall  so  hard  dat 
you  break  elar  froo  to  de  debbiPs  stampin'  groun',  whar 
you'll  light  into  de  center  ob  a  mighty  furnace  what's  so 
hot  dat  it'll  sco'ch  a  fedder  a  mile  off. 

"  But  ef  you  is  acomin'  hyarto  fin'  deLawd,  den  look 
out  fo'  de  golden  chariot;  it's  jist  comin'  roun'  de 
corner  like  a  steamboat  race  on  de  Massassippi,  wid  one 
niggah  sittin'  on  de  safety-valve  an'  all  de  roustabouts 
firin'  up  wid  bacon  an'  rosum.  Look  out !  I  can  hyar 
de  wheels  a  rattlin'  an'  Jesus  is  hollerin'  to  de  lead 
hosses  ;  now  is  de  time,  bress  de  Lawd,  de  day  ob  salva- 
tion hab  come,  an'  dehawp  of  Zionis  playin'  Dixie  fo'  de 
colored  people.  Si'ng,  bredren,  sing,  an'  let  Jesus  know 
dat  dar  is  a  car-load  ob  sinners  hyar  a  emptyin'  ob  dar 
guilt  into  de  bilin'  kettle  ob  repentance.  Don't  let  de 
chariot  go  by  widout  hailin'  ob  it ;  open  de  doah  and  de 
windahs  dat  de  angels  can  get  in  to  dis  temple.  I  heah 
de  trumpet  bio  win'  ;  good  Lawd,  come  in,  'case  you  is 
welcome  an'  we  is  all  a  waitin'  fo'  a  seat  in  de  chariot 
dat  rolls  'long  by  all  de  meetin'  houses  ;  don't  forgit  us 
'case  we's  niggers,  fo'  our  hearts  is  washed  in  de  blood 
obdelam'." 

During  this  exhortation  the  congregation  went  into 
hysterics,  singing: 

"  Oh,  de  Lawd  has  cotch  me  under  de  arm  ; 

Gelory,  hallelugerum ; 
Oh,  he  gwine  to  take  me  ofPn  dis  farm  ; 

Gelory,  bress  de  Lam'; 
No  more  cotton  pickin'  or  hoein'  in  de  cane ; 

Gelory\  hallelugerum  : 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  50  I 

I'se  gwine  up  to  hebben  an'  I'll  nebber  come  down  agin, 
Gelory,  bress  de  Lam'. 

"  Oh,  I  hear  de  golden  chariot,  hits  a  comin'  arter  me ; 

Gelory,  hallelugerum ; 
De  Lawd  is  mighty  good,  kase  he  gwine  to  set  me  free ; 

Gelory,  bress  de  Lam' ; 
Oh,  dis  niggah  is  so  happy,  a  climbin'  Zion's  hill ; 

Gelory,  hallelugerum  ; 
Dat  his  body  keep  a  swayin'  and  his  feet  he  cayn't  keep  still ; 

Gelory,  bress  de  Lam'. 

"  Good  bye,  good  bye,  I'll  meet  you  in  de  mawnin' ; 
Jesus  am  a  callin',  I  cannot  stay  away ; 
I  feel  de  wings  a  sproutin'  an'  my  feet  dey  cannot  stay  ; 
So  I'se  gwine  to  de  kingdom,  I'se  gwine  to  de  kingdom,  I'se 
gwine  to  de  kingdom  in  de  chariot  to-day." 

This  song,  which,  in  some  of  the  lines,  appeared  im- 
promptu, filled  the  tabernacle  with  a  weird  and  vocifer- 
ous melody  that  brought  every  one  of  the  congregation 
into  a  state  of  paroxysmal  exaltation.  While  some  were 
carrying  the  air  with  real  musical  concord,  others,  became 
hysterical  and  shouted  with  a  gusto  almost  deafening. 
The  minister,  after  exhorting  his  people  for  half  an  hour, 
sank  back  on  an  old  chair  in  the  pulpit  apparently  ex- 
hausted. His  place,  however,  was  immediately  supplied 
by  two  ancient  women,  who  mounted  the  dais  and  ex- 
hibited such  overwhelming  zeal  that  a  new  spiritual 
afflatus  seized  the  audience ;  men  and  women  threw 
themselves  recklessly  into  the  arms  of  each  other  without 
regard  for  age  or  sex,  while  others  dropped  upon  their 
knees  and  set  up  the  wildest  harangues  for  divine  mercy, 
screaming  out  such  exclamations  as  :  "I  see  de  Lawd  ; " 
"  Oh,  had  I  de  wings  ob  a  June  bug  to  fly  away  to  heb- 
ben ;  "  ' '  Hebben  hab  opened  de  doors  to  me  ;  "  "  Hear 
de  angels  sing  ;  "  "  Dar's  joy  in  de  kingdom  to-day  ;  " 
"Look  out  fo'  me,  Lawd,  'case  I'se  a  coming,"  etc. 


508 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES, 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  509 

Such  confusion  I  never  before  saw,  and  for  a  time 
there  was  some  doubt  in  my  mind  concerning  the  pro- 
priety of  longer  remaining  and  taking  the  chances  of 
being  smothered  in  the  embrace  of  one  or  more  female 
corporations,  or  drowned  in  the  profuseness  of  perspira- 
tion that  streamed  from  excited  bodies.  But  my  curiosity 
suppressed  these  fleeting  anxieties,  and  I  remained  until 
the  service  and  agitation  were  concluded.  After  an  hour 
or  more  of  this  religious  frenzy,  the  old  preacher  admon- 
ished his  audience  to  subside  for  a  while,  as  he  wished  for 
those  who  really  felt  a  change  of  heart,  and  desired  re- 
ligion, to  come  forward,  when  he  would  record  their 
names  for  baptism .  I  was  astonished  to  see  less  than  a 
dozen  candidates  respond  to  this  call,  for,  judging  them 
entirely  by  the  signs  they  gave  of  a  violent  mental  condi- 
tion, I  expected  to  see  the  entire  congregation  go  piling 
over  each  other  in  a  scramble  for  first  place.  Order  was 
restored  out  of  chaos  so  quickly  that  it  appeared  like  a 
transformation  scene  on  a  moving  canvas  making  sun- 
shine succeed  a  storm. 

After  the  congregation  was  dismissed  my  surprise 
greatly  increased  as  I  noticed  a  general  levity  seize  upon 
young  and  old  alike  ;  tears,  groans,  prayers,  and  frenzy 
gave  place  to  the  merriest  laughs,  plantation  melodies, 
and  even  profane  allusions  to  some  of  the  scenes  just  en- 
acted. Yet  I  can  have  no  doubt  that  every  one  of  those 
confessed  sinners  were  sincere  in  all  their  protestations  of 
repentance  ;  but  the  chariot  did  not  stop,  and  upon  dis- 
missal their  ebullient  feelings  had  entirely  worked  off, 
leaving  life  as  practical  and  austere  as  before. 


510  MYSTERIES    AND    3IISERIES. 


CHAPTER  II. 

OLD    MEMORIES,  AND    NEGRO    HOE-DOWNS. 

To  those  who  visit  the  South  in  these  later  years, 
none  of  the  old-time  negro  characters  and  surroundings 
will  appear ;  this  new  age  has  obliterated  many  land- 
marks of  slavery  and  substituted  distinctive  characteris- 
tics, none  of  which  will  apply  to  the  slaves,  or  plantation 
life  before  the  war. 

Every  Southerner  that  has  been  reared  to  manhood 
under  the  genial  sunshine  that  embalms  the  atmosphere 
of  his  native  clime  with  perennial  warmth,  looks  upon 
New  Orleans  as  the  queen  city,  that  should  by  right 
wear  a  crown  of  purest  excellence  and  suprernest  sover- 
eignty. Those  who  have  passed  the  meridian  of  their 
lives  under  such  a  canopy  of  perpetual  summer,  now  doze 
away  the  long  days  in  arm-chairs,  upon  ample  porches, 
where  they  can  dream  of  those  old  times  when  cotton 
and  sugar-cane  were  kings  that  enriched  the  South  like 
the  horn  of  Amalthsea ;  store-houses  filled  with  provi- 
sions, plantations  bursting  with  rich  harvests,  and  merry 
slaves  making  the  air  musical  with  their  labor  sonjrs. 

c  o 

Oh,  those  wondrous  days,  when  wine,  cards,  revelry 
and  good-fellowship  made  everything  happy.  The  Mis- 
sissippi River  was  flecked  with  steamers  cither  loaded  to 
their  guards,  or  running  light  in  a  race  for  $20,000, 
$50,000  or  $100,000. 

The  big  balls  given  in  New  Orleans  are  memories  that 
can  never  fade ;  such  gorgeous  wardrobes,  magnificent 
halls,  and  a  profusion  of  wealth  as  dazzling  as  ever  ma- 
gician called  into  being.  Beauty  lent  its  enchantment  to 


NEW  ORLEANS NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.       511 

these  occasions,  and  only  such  melting  loveliness  as  the 
semi-tropics  can  create:  warm,  mellifluent,  Parian,  opal- 
escent complexions  and  Hebean  development  that  draws 
the  fire  of  enthusiastic  love,  and  makes  such  women 
sweeter  than  the  angels ;  with  natures,  too^  that  feed 
upon  the  atmosphere,  sensual  with  tropical  response  and 
giving  an  exhalation  of  aromatic  sensitiveness  that  dips 
the  darts  of  love  with  modesty. 

Will  a  Southerner  ever  forget  the  grand  dinners,  wine- 
suppers,  card  parties,  and  gay  companionship  that  once 
made  the  old  St.  Charles  Hotel  famous?  How  many 
hearts  have  been  lost  and  won  in  that  quaint  hostelry  no 
one  may  ever  know ;  how  many  duels  had  their  begin- 
ning at  the  social  congregations  in  this  rare  old  caravan- 
sary none  can  approximate.  Yet  grand,  dear  memories 
cluster  like  a  tiara  of  diamonds  about  the  very  name 
worn  by  the  old  St.  Charles,  and  it  glitters  through  a 
long  vista  of  years  with  that  dancing  shimmer  that  moon- 
beams cast  on  the  restless  sea. 

Negroes,  as  well  as  rich  planters,  will  remember  how 
much  there  is  in  New  Orleans  to  awaken  reminiscences 
of  the  ante-bellum  times,  before*  war  began  its  terrible 
ravages  through  the  fairest  grounds  and  most  sacred 
places  that  once  hallowed  the  South. 

There  was  nothing  so  delightsome  to  the  colored  people 
in  those  olden  times  as  an  exhibition  of  their  skill  in 
dancing,  picking  the  banjo,  and  singing.  It  is  a  singular 
fact,  however,  that  nearly  all  the  popular  songs,  those 
rare  melodies  that  have  kept  their  place  in  the  hearts  of 
blacks  and  whites  alike,  were  the  product  of  Northern 
men.  "  Suwanee  River,"  " Bob  Ridley,"  "The  Slave 
of  Tennessee,"  "  Those  Cruel,  Agonizing  Slavery  Days," 
4 'Yellow  Rose  of  Texas,"  "  Old  Uncle  Ned,"  etc.,  are 
all,  I  believe,  emanations  of  Northern  song  makers,  the 


512 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


NEW   ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  513 

greatest  of  all  being  Stephen  A.  Foster,  of  Pittsburgh, 
who  died  several  years  ago.  These  songs  have  served  to 
make  the  negro  race  distinct  in  the  South,  for  nowhere 
else  do  we  hear  them  sung  with  such  fervency  and  elo- 
quent melody. 

One  of  the  old  and  most  memorable  buildings  of  New 

o 

Orleans,  that  has  been  a  resort  for  colored  people  during 
the  past  forty  years  or  more,  is  the  old  French  Market, 
situated  near  Jackson  Square.  It  was  built  long  before 
slavery  was  thought  to  be  in  danger  of  extermination, 
and  therefore  through  most  of  its  existence  the  Market  has 
been  essentially  a  meeting-place  for  negroes,  buying  for 
themselves  and  their  masters.  It  is  still  an  object  of 
curiosity  to  strangers  visiting  New  Orleans,  for  it  is  par- 
ticularly suggestive  of  old  times  in  the  South. 

It  is  said  that  dancing  is  a  creation  of  Fetish  barbarity, 
and  that  it  became  an  amusement  among  civilized  people 
through  introduction  by  invading  hosts  from  Europe.  Of 
this  fact  there  is  little  doubt,  but  from  an  unholy,  sacri- 
ficial ceremonial,  dancing  has  been  elevated  to  a  peerage 
with  the  most  delightful  amusement.  It  is  one  thing  to 
see  white  people  in  mazy,  conventional  graces  on  a  ball- 
room floor,  which  is  called  dancing,  but  quite  a  different 
association  of  the  term  is  applicable  in  defining  the  genu- 
ine, old-time  negro  frolic ;  the  difference  may  be  desig- 
nated by  using  the  term  "amusement"  for  one,  and 
66  rollicking  fun"  for  the  other.  In  dancing,  as  in  all 
other  delectable  employments,  the  colored  race  is  trans- 
cendentally  superior,  if  we  may  form  a  judgment  upon 
the  amount  of  delicious  pleasure  extracted.  A  white  man 
and  his  partner,  hampered  by  rules  of  etiquette,  introduce 
themselves  in  the  ball-room  by  a  querulous,  mannerish 
obeisance,  and  "  balance  all"  with  a  studied  haughtiness 
that  becomes  strangers  not  anxious  for  acquaintance. 
33 


514  MYSTERIES     AND     MISERIES. 

But  negroes  appreciate  the  bright  side  of  life  in  a  manner 
that  demonstrates  their  determination  to  draw  out  every 
possible  drop  of  sweetness  the  occasion  may  be  made  to 
produce.  "  Honah  to  yo'  pardners  "  means  abroad  grin 
and  a  hearty  shake  that  establishes  an  intimacy  through 
the  entire  set,  and  at  the  next  call,  "  balance  all,"  every 
heel  shows  to  ' '  big  ' '  advantage  ;  no  sliding  and  posing 
like  a  lot  of  tobacco  signs  shoved  around  the  room  on 
rollers,  for  the  music  and  the  occasion  throw  a  negro's 
soul  into  his  feet  which  at  once  set  up  an  agitation  as  though 
they  were  possessed  of  a  spiritual  outpouring ;  there  is 
rhythm,  too,  in  every  motion,  while  joyous  exaltation 
completes  a  picture  of  pleasure  that  no  artist  or  concep- 
tion can  exaggerate. 

"  Listen  when  I  call  de  figgers  !     Watch  de  music  es  you  go  ! 
Chassay  forrard!     (Now  look  at  'em!  some  too  fas'  an'  some 

too  slow!) 

Step  out  when  I  gibs  de  order ;  keep  up  eben  wid  de  line ; 
What's  got  in  dem  lazy  niggers  ?     Stop  dat  stringin'  out  behin'; 
All  go  forrard  to  de  center !     Balance  roun'  an'  den  go  back ! 
Keep  on  in  de  proper  'rection,  right  straight  up  an'  down  de 

crack ! 
Moobe  up  sides  an'  mind  de  music ;  listen  when  you  hyar  me 

speak  ! 
Qes'  look  at  dem  Pea  Ridge  niggers,  how  dey's  buckin'  'gin  de 

Creek !) 

Dat's  de  proper  action,  Sambo  !  den  you  done  de  biznis  right ! 
Now  show  'em  how    you  knocked  de  splinters  at  de  shuckin' 

t'udder  night ; 

Try  to  do  your  lebbel  bes',  an'  stomp  it  like  you  use  to  do ! 
Jes'  come  down  on  de  *  Flat  Creek  step '  an'  show  de  Ridge  a 

thing  or  two  ! 

Now  look  at  dat  limber  Jonah  tryin'  to  ketch  de  fancy  fling  ! 
(Who  ebber  seed  a  yaller  nigger  dat  could  cut  de  pidgin-wing  ?) 
Try  dat  lick  ag'in,  dar,  Moses ;  tell  you  what  dat's  hard  to  beat ! 
How  kin  sich  a  little  nigger  handle  sich  a  pile  o'  feet  ?) 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO   SUPERSTITIONS.  515 


516  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

Swing  yo'  co'nahs!      Turn   yo'  pardners.      'Pears  de  motion's 

gittin'  slow. 

What's  de  matter  wid  de  music  ?     Put  some  rosum  on  dat  bow  J 
Moobe  up,  Tom — don't  be  so  sleepy!     Let  'em  see  what  yo' 

kin  do ! 
Light  off  in  de  '  gra'-vine-twis  '   an'  knock  de  '  double-shuffle/ 

too! 

Gosh !  dat  double-j'inted  Steben  flings  a  hifalutin  hoof! 
He  kicks  de  dus'  plum  out  de  planks  anr  jars  de  shingles  on 

de  roof! 

Steady,  now,  an'  check  de  motion !     Let  de  fiddler  stop  de  chune  j 
I  smell  de  'possum  froo  de  crack,  an'  supper's  gwine  to  call  you 

soon  ! 
De  white  folks  come  it  mighty  handy,  waltzin'  roun'  so  nice  an' 

fine; 
But  when  you  come  to  reg'lar  danciri ',  niggers  leabes  'em  way 

behitf  /" 


CHAPTER  III. 

NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS VOUDOUISM. 

SUPERSTITION  is  a  shackle  about  the  reason  of  every 
race  that  can  never  be  broken ;  it  maintains  itself  not 
alone  among  barbarous  people,  but  also  clings  about  the 
abode  of  those  most  enlightened.  It  is,  therefore,  least 
surprising  that  the  negro  race  should  be  especial  .votaries 
to  superstition,  since  it  grows  most  rank  among  those 
whose  intelligence  has  not  been  fostered  by  a  training  of 
the  understanding  and  reasoning  powers.  As  our  remote 
ancestors  saw  God  in  every  lightning's  flash,  and  heard 
his  angry  voice  in  each  thunder  peal,  so  do  those  yet 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  517 

lingering  in  the  valley  of  superstition  look  to  the  opera- 
tion of  occult  forces  and  supernatural  agencies.  This 
feeling  exists  among  all  classes  in  degrees,  bat  the  ne- 
groes are  particularly  impressionable,  for  the  reason  thai; 
cause  and  effect  are  not  understood  by  them  as  corolla- 
ries of  nature. 

All  religions  are  interesting  in  their  relations  to  nature, 
an  dare  generally  pantheistical  in  conception,  conflicting  and 
confounding  God  with  his  works,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
antagonizing  their  own  understanding.  If  this  truth  be 
admitted — it  cannot  be  disproved — an  intelligent  people 
can  charitably  pardon  the  weird  ceremonies,  and  barbar- 
ous sacrifices  which  distinguish  religious  observances 
among  a  race  occupying  the  very  back-yard  of  human 
reason  and  intuition. 

Negro  worship  is  as  variable  as  climate  and  association, 
both  of  which  have  a  potent  influence  upon  character. 
This  fact  is  observed  by  regarding  the  contrast  which  is 
presented  between  the  colored  people  of  the  North  and 
those  in  the  South.  Under  conditions  which  support  all 
the  inherent  qualities  and  peculiarities  of  the  race,  which 
are  supplied  by  a  warm  climate  and  intensified  by  a  pre- 
served ignorance,  the  Southern  negroes  hold  fast  to  those 
rites  which  first  obtained  in  Africa.  A  constant  immi- 
gration of  colored  people,  kidnapped  into  slavery,  caused 
a  transfusion  of  Fetish  ceremonies,  to  which  were  added, 
from  time  to  time,  other  formularies  that  were  embodied 
into  all  the  quaint  ordinances  recognized  by  slave  worship. 
By  this  amalgamation  we  have  what  is  known  as  Voudou- 
ism,  a  species  of  religious  superstition  that  appeals  directly 
to  occult  laws  and  stands  wholly  upon  a  basis  of  super- 
naturalism  . 

It  is  so  singular  as  to  be  unaccountable  why  the  term 
'  'Voudou"  is  omitted  from  all  dictionaries  and  ency- 


518  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

clopedias  ;  no  book  of  general  reference,  so  far  as  I  have 
consulted,  contains  any  allusion  to  this  strange  worship, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  comprehends  a  subject  of 
rare  interest,  and  is  universally  recognized  as  an  estab- 
lished form  of  belief  and  practice  throughout  the  South- 
ern States,  while  it  also  has  many  followers  among  the 
colored  people  of  the  North. 

A  disposition  has  been  manifested  by  some  writers  who 
claim  a  Southern  parentage,  to  discredit  the  prevalence 
of  Youdouism,  but  whatever  influence  actuates  such  pre- 
tensions, I  am  prepared  to  prove  that  this  religious  wor- 
ship is  in  no  sense  isolated ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
has  thousands  of  subjects  even  in  this  day  who  hold 
Youdou  carnivals  at  stated  intervals  in  every  Southern 
State,  and  no  well-informed  person  of  that  section  will 
contradict  the  assertion. 

An  old  gentleman,  once  a  wealthy  planter,  living  in 
Plaquimine  parish,  Louisiana,  gave  me  a  most  realistic 
description  of  a  Youdou  celebration  he  attended  near  New 
Orleans  when  a  boy.  His  narrative,  besides  being  inter- 
esting, was  so  instructive  that  it  is  particularly  applicable 
in  this  connection .  Said  he  : 

"  I  am  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  superstitions  of 
colored  people,  having  spent  half  of  a  long  life  among 
them.  I  had  many  opportunities  to  attend  Youdou  cere- 
monies, but  a  feeling  of  dread  deterred  me  for  some  time, 
when  at  last  I  was  persuaded  to  subordinate  dread  to 
curiosity  ;  this  was  many  years  ago,  I  think  in  1825,  but 
I  distinctly  remember  everything  that  occurred  on  that 
occasion,  as  though  it  had  been  yesterday.  I  must  tell 
you  how  I  was  induced  to  attend. 

"  My  acquaintance  with  them  '  de  visu '  occurred  in  this 
wise  :  We  had  a  servant  from  an  island  of  the  West  In- 
dies— a  mulattress,  and  very  intelligent.  Phoebe  was  a 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  519 

% 

mystic — a  soul  of  Huldah  the  Prophetess.  Phoebe,  too, 
entertained  a  queenly  contempt  for  the  quiet  house-born 
and  house-taught 'niggers,'  and  lost  no  opportunity  of 
impressing  them  with  awe  and  astonishment  at  her  supe- 
riority. Our  house,  like  many  others  in  New  Orleans  at 
that  time,  had  a  long  hall  or  entry  running  through  it, 
and  which  furnished  the  principal  mode  of  ingress  or 
egress  for  its  inmates.  The  door  of  this  hall  was  rigidly 
locked  at  the  nine-o'clock  gun,  and  the  key  put  in  my 
hand,  as  I  was  the  first  one  of  the  family  up  to  open  the 
corridor-gate,  that  the  house-servant  might  get  water 
from  the  early  water-carrier,  and  the  cook  go  to  market 
for  her  daily  supply  of  provisions. 

"  One  evening  old  Phcebe  came  wheedling  around  me, 
and  said  : 

"'  Little  master,  you  keep  the  key  of  the  corridor. 
Please  let  me  out  to-night  after  nine  o'clock.  You  sit  up 
till  ten  at  your  lessons,  and  you  can  let  me  out,  and  no 
one  will  know.' 

"  '  Why  don't  you  ask  father  for  a  pass?'  I  answered. 

"  '  Well,  I  couldn't  tell  him  where  I  want  to  go,  because 
I  must  stay  out  late,  so  I  thought  that  if  you  would  open 
the  gate  forme,  and  go  with  me,  you  would  be  the  good 
pass,  and  we  would  come  back  before  daylight.' 

"  '  But  where  do  you  want  to  go,  Phoebe?  ' 

"  'Well,  little  master,  I  can't  tell  you  ;  but  you  come 
with  me,  and  you  will  see.  Look  as  much  as  you  choose 
where  we  are  going,  but  speak,  '  No  ! ' 

"  I  was  fifteen  years  old,  and  not  a  model  boy  by  any 
means.  The  savor  of  forbidden  fruit  was  delicious  to 
my  palate,  and  when  old  Phcebe  addressed  herself  to  my 
love  of  mystery  and  spirit  of  daring,  she  had  me  soul  and 
body.  So  at  ten  o'clock,  the  family  all  retired,  I  put  up 
my  books  and  hurried  to  the  door,  where  I  found  Phoebe 


520  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

waiting,  dressed  in  white,  and  we  sallied  forth  into  the 
lovely  June  night. 

4 *  It  was  the  Eve  of  St.  John.  Two  blocks  from  the 
house  we  met  the  gendarmes,  who  halted  us  ;  but  I  had 
my  answer  ready.  I  was  going  to  my  grandmother's, 
and  my  servant  was  accompanying  me.  We  passed  all 
the  large  streets,  and  when  we  reached  the  last  from  the 
river,  Phoebe  took  the  lead  and  I  followed  in  the  darkness 
through  all  kinds  of  alleys  and  undefined  ways.  At  last, 
at  the  extreme  limits  of  the  city,  we  reached  an  empty 
square,  inclosed  in  a  cypress  picket-fence  fully  ten  feet 
high.  I  recognized  the  spot.  It  was  an  abandoned 
brick-yard,  in  which  we  boys  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
catching  crawfish  in  the  brick-pits. 

"The  house  of  the  owner  of  the  brick-yard,  much  dilap- 
idated, was  still  standing,  and  there  were  six  or  seven 
cabins  around  it.  When  we  reached  the  middle  of  the 
fence,  I  found  that  the  large  gate  through  which  the 
brick-carts  had  once  passed  had  been  boarded  up,  but 
next  to  it  was  a  small  gate,  behind  which,  on  entrance, 
I  discovered  a  hut.  On  a  peculiar  knock  of  Phoebe's, 
the  small  gate  opened  and  a  very  old  negro  confronted 
her. 

"  She  whispered  a  few  words  to  him,  and  he  spread 
back  the  door. 

"When  he  saw  me,  however,  held  by  the  hand  by 
Phcebe,  he  pushed  the  door  forward,  saying : 

"  « Qui  ci  ca?'  (Who  is  that?). 

"  <  Qui  ca  fe  toi?'  answered  Phoebe,  in  the  negro- 
French  patois.  «  To  ici  pou  garde  la  porte '  (What  is 
that  to  thee?  Thou  art  here  to  watch  the  gate  alone). 

"  The  man  stood  irresolute. 

"  *  I  tell  thee  I  have  no  account  to  render  to  thee,  thou 
knowest  well ! ' — Phcebe  was  getting  furious. — '  Let  me 
pass  on  with  my  little  master  !' 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  521 

"  He  drew  back,  and  we  stumbled  on  to  a  spot  from 
which  I  could  discern  a  very  dim  light  struggling  its 
feeble  way  through  a  double  row  of  oleanders  and 
altheas.  We  reached  a  cottage,  and,  by  the  same  myste- 
rious knock,  the  door  was  opened,  and  we  were  received 
by  an  aged  negress,  whose  face  was  familiar  to  me  as 
that  of  the  'cala-woman,'  from  whom  I  had  often 
bought  that  dainty.  She  was  known  by  the  name  of 
Sanite  Dede.  Her  first  salutation  to  Phoebe  was — 

"  «  To  oini  ben  tard  a  soir.  To  t'e  bien  connain  nous 
gagne  pou  fe  quat  voudous  a  soir.'  (Thou  hast  come 
late  to-night,  yet  thou  knowest  well  we  have  four  voudous 
to  make). 

"  *  Non,'  said  Phoebe,  '  mo  t'e  pas  capable  gagnen  ein 
passe,  mo  maitre.'  (I  couldn't  come  earlier,  because  I 
couldn't  get  a  pass  from  master). 

66  '  E  ben  comment  t'o  vim  done?'  (Well,  then,  how 
did  you  come?) 

"  '  Mo  menein  mo  tit  maitre  avec  moi,  et  nous  passe  tou 
zendarme  la.'  (I  brought  little  master  with  me,  and  we 
passed  ail  those  gendarmes). 

"  «  Cote  li  ye  ? '   (Where  is  he  ?) 

"Thinking  it  was  time  to  assert  my  own  dignity,  I 
stepped  from  behind  Phoebe.  The  old  woman  threw  up 
her  arms. 

"  '  What !  thou  here?  '   (I  will  spare  you  the  patois). 

66  *  Yes,'  I  answered,  «  Phoebe  has  told  you  the  story. 
I  have  come  with  her,  and  I  don't  intend  leaving  her  a 
minute — mind  me,  Dede— until  she  is  ready  to  go  back 
with  me.' 

"  The  old  hag  cast  a  furious  look  at  Phoebe  and  muttered 
to  herself.  At  last  she  drew  a  three-legged  stool  to  me 
and  said,  harshly,  '  Sit  down  there  ! ' 

"  This  did  not  suit  me.     I  was  beginning  to  be  fright- 


522  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

ened  at  what  I  had  done.  How  did  I  know  but  that  all 
this  was  a  deep-laid  plot,  and  that  Phoebe  was  about  to 
run  away,  and  had  used  me  to  get  through  the  city 
guard?  Wherever  Phcrbe  went  there  would  I  follow  ;  so 
I  stood  sturdily  by  the  door.  The  two  women  consulted 
for  a  moment  in  a  whisper,  and  then  Dede  said,  aloud, 
1  Do  as  thou  picasest.' 

"  At  this  moment  I  heard  a  dull,  weird  sound  rising  on 
the  stillness  of  the  night,  and  creeping  through  the  house 
where  we  stood. 

"  <  Hearest  thou?'  said  Dede;  'that  is  the  call,  and 
we  must  go.' 

"As  we  went  forth,  I  saw  a  long  building,  some  forty 
feet  in  length  by  twenty  in  width,  which  I  recognized  as 
the  great  brick  shed.  AVhen  used  for  that  purpose  one 
of  the  four  sides  had  been  left  open  to  admit  carts. 
That  was  now  closely  boarded  in,  and,  as  we  approached, 
I  could  see  a  crowd  of  white  phantoms  issuing  from  the 
cabins  around,  and  making  their  way  toward  the  shed. 

"  An  entrance-door  was  opened  at  the  call  of  Dede,  and 
I  witnessed  a  scene  which,  old  as  I  am,  no  passage  of 
years  can  ever  dim.  The  first  thing  which  struck  me  as 
we  entered  was  a  built-up  square  of  bricks  at  the  upper 
and  lower  end  of  the  shed,  on  each  of  which  was  burning 
a  fierce  fire,  casting  a  lurid  light  over  the  scene.  Along 
the  four  sides  of  the  parallelogram  of  the  building,  were 
sconces,  with  lighted  dips  placed  at  equal  distances,  which 
barely  added  to  the  darkling  light  of  the  two  pyres.  On 
the  initiated  who  had  already  come  in,  and  on  those  who 
were  then  thronging  the  shed,  the  combined  light  of  fire- 
stack  and  tallow-dip  falling  on  their  white  garments 
made  an  unearthly,  fantastic  picture,  such  as  Dore  to-day 
would  have  delighted  in.  I  began  to  understand  where  I 
was,  and,  though  no  coward,  I  can  tell  you  I  shuddered 


NEW   ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS. 


523 


524  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

when  I  thought  of  till  I  had  heard  of  Voudou  rites. 
Each  man  and  woman  had  a  white  kerchief  tied  around 
the  forehead,  though  the  heads  of  the  latter  were  cov- 
ered by  the  traditional  Madras  handkerchief,  with  its  five, 
nay,  with  its  seven  artistic  points,  upturned  to  heaven, 

"In  a  little  time  the  company,  some  sixty  in  all,  had  as- 
sembled. There  were  males  and  females,  old  and  young, 
negroes  and  negresses — handsome  mulattresses  and  quad- 
roons. With  them  half  a  dozen  white  men  and  two 
white  women. 

' '  In  one  of  the  corners  of  the  upper  pyre  Phoebe  assigned 
me  a  place.  Near  where  I  stood  was  an  oblong  table 
about  eight  feet  in  length  and  four  in  width.  On  its 
right  end  stood  a  black  cat,  and  on  its  left  a  white  one. 
I  thought  them  alive,  and,  having  a  certain  fondness  for 
cats,  stretched  out  my  hand  to  stroke  the  nearest.  The 
touch,  that  most  philosophical  of  all  the  senses,  soon  sat- 
isfied me  that  they  were  fine  specimens  of  negro  taxider- 
my. Admirably  stuffed  they  were,  too.  In  the  centre 
of  the  table  there  was  a  cypress  sapling,  some  four  feet 
in  height,  planted  in  the  centre  of  a  firkin  or  keg.  Im- 
mediately behind  the  cypress,  and  towering  above  it,  was 
a  black  doll  with  a  dress  variegated  by  cabalistic  signs 
and  emblems,  and  a  necklace  of  the  vertebrae  of  snakes 
around  her  neck,  from  which  depended  an  alligator's 
fang  encased  in  silver. 

' « At  the  side  of  this  table  I  recognized  an  old  negro  by 
the  name  of  Zozo,  well  known  in  New  Orleans  as  a  ven- 
der of  palmetto  and  sassafras  roots ;  in  fact,  he  had  a 
whole  pharmacopoeia  of  simples  and  herbs,  some  salutary, 
but  others  said  to  be  fatal. 

"  He  seemed  to  be  the  corypheus  of  these  unhallowed 
rites,  for  the  signal  of  the  beginning  of  the  work  came 
from  him.  He  was  astride  of  a  cylinder  made  of  thin 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  525 

cypress  staves  hooped  with  brass  and  headed  by  a  sheep- 
skin. With  two  sticks  he  droned  away  a  monotonous 
ra-ra-tn,  ra-ra-ta-ta,  while  on  his  left  sat  a  negro  on  a 
low  stool,  who  with  two  sheep  shank-bones,  and  a  ne- 
gress  with  the  leg-bones  of  a  buzzard  or  turkey,  beat  an 
accompaniment  on  the  sides  of  the  cylinder.  It  was  a 
queer  second  to  this  satanic  discord.  Some  two  feet 
from  these  arch-musicians  squatted  a  young  negro  vig- 
orously twirling  a  long  calabash.  It  was  made  of  one 
of  our  Louisiana  gourds  a  foot  and  a  half  long,  and  filled 
with  pebbles. 

"  At  a  given  signal  the  four  initiates  formed  a  crescent 
before  Dede,  who  was  evidently  the  high  priestess  or 
Voudou  queen.  She  made  cabalistic  signs  over  them, 
and  sprinkled  them  vigorously  with  some  liquid  from  a 
calabash  in  her  hand,  muttering  under  her  breath. 

"  She  raised  her  hand  and  Zozo  dismounted  from  his  cyl- 
inder, and  from  some  hidden  receptacle  in  or  behind  the 
large  black  doll,  drew  an  immense  snake,  which  he  bran- 
dished wildly  aloft.  I  cannot  at  this  distance  of  time  re- 
call to  what  species  the  serpent  belonged  ;  I  only  remem- 
ber its  vivid  colors,  showing  like  glistening  red  and  black 
lozenges  in  the  lurid,  waning  light  of  pyre  and  sconce. 

"This  snake  Zozo  handled  with  the  mastery  of  Psylll, 
those  charmers  of  serpents  on  the  burning  sands  of  the 
African  Syrtis,  of  whom  Pliny  tells  us.  He  talked  and 
whispered  to  it.  At  every  word  the  reptile,  with  undu- 
lating body  and  lambent  tongue,  seemed  to  acknowledge 
the  dominion  asserted  over  it.  In  the  meantime,  with 
arms  crossed  and  reverent  eyes,  the  initiates  had  now 
formed  a  crescent  around  Zozo.  He  now  compelled  the 
snake  to  stand  upright  for  about  ten  inches  of  its  body, 
and,  like  the  deadly  Naia  which  figures  as  a  head-piece  to 
Egyptian  Isis,  its  head  was  horizontally  laid.  In  that 


526  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

position  Zozo  passed  the  snake  over  the  heads  and  around 
the  necks  of  the  initiates,  repeating  at  each  pass  the 
words  which  constitute  the  name  of  this  African  sect, 
< Voudou  Magnian.' 

"  Hardly  was  this  last  ceremony  over  when  along,  deep 
howl  of  exultation  broke  from  every  part  of  the  shed. 
Zozo  back  to  his  tam-tam,  his  accompaniers  right  and 
left,  and  the  gourd  musician  with  his  rattle.  A  banjo 
player,  too,  sprang  up,  and  pandemonium  was  unloosed. 

"  In  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  on  little  brick  foundations, 
boards  were  laid  for  a  supper-table.  The  very  oldest 
and  ugliest  of  the  tribes  of  Congos,  Minas,  Gangas,  and 
Hibous,  seemed  to  have  been  delegated  to  prepare  and 
attend,  as  at  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  —  Ceres  and  Bac- 
chus, meat  and  wine — the  feast  of  the  initiates.  No 
benches,  no  seats  of  any  kind.  Some  squatted  on  their 
haunches,  others  reclined,  like  the  Romans,  on  their  tri- 
china when  at  a  feast.  And  such  a  feast  it  was  !  Every 
thing  accessible  that  cleaves  the  air,  that  moves  in  the 
water,  and  that  dwells  on  the  earth,  seemed  to  have  been 
impressed  for  the  occasion.  Before  each  guest  was  a 
wax  taper  or  a  sperm  candle  stuck  in  a  round  dab  of  clay 
for  a  candlestick.  No  tumblers,  but  before  each  guest  a 
baked  clay  vase,  much  like  the  amphora  of  the  ancients. 
A  vase  with  capacious  and  rounded  belly,  and  a  small 
spout,  out  of  which  the  revelers  drank  wine  or  tafia 
(sugar-cane  rum).  Whiskey  had  not  then  come 
from  'Kaintock'  to  civilize  Louisiana  into  the  higher 
perfections  of  the  'drunk.'  The  revelers  gorged,  and 
smiled,  until,  in  the  words  of  Livy,  '  Vino  ciboque  gra- 
vati.'  They  were  roused  from  their  bacchanal! a  by  the 
long,  tierce  call  of  Zozo's  tam-tam.  The  old  women  re- 
moved the  boards,  swept  away  the  debris  of  the  feast, 
and  left  the  space  of  about  forty  feet  open  for  the  dance. 


NEW   CHILEANS — NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  527 


CASTING  THE  SERPENT  INTO  THE  FIRE, 


528  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

"  As  the  guests  stood  on  the  floor  (a  hardened  surface  of 
brick-dust),  Zozo,  leaving  his  tam-tam,  went  up  to  the 
altar — I  have  no  other  name  for  the  place  of  Fetish- 
worship — and  again  drew  forth  the  snake. 

"  He  forced  it  to  writhe  and  wriggle  over  and  around  the 
company,  uttering  the  two  words  which  were  repeated  by 
sixty  voices,  '  Voudou,  Voudou,  Magnian.'  He  then 
twirled  the  snake  around  his  head  and  dexterously  cast  it 
into  the  blazing  pile.  Such  a  yell  as  arose  no  words  can 
describe.  The  rude  instruments  took  up  their  discord, 
mixed  with  yells.  The  chorus  of  Dante's  hell  had  enter- 
ed into  the  mad  shouts  of  Africa.  Then  came  a  general 
call  for  the  dance,  and  no  dance  of  the  witches  in  the 
Hartzberg  ever  came  up  to  it.  Up  sprang  a  magnificent 
specimen  of  human  flesh — Ajona,  a  lithe,  tall,  black 
woman,  with  a  body  waving  and  undulating  like  Zozo's 
snake — a  perfect  Semiramis  from  the  jungles  of  Africa. 
Confining  herself  to  a  spot  not  more  than  two  feet  in 
space,  she  began  to  sway  on  one  and  the  other  side. 
Gradually  the  undulating  motion  was  imparted  to  her 
body  from  the  ankles  to  the  hips.  Then  she  tore  the 
white  handkerchief  from  her  forehead.  This  was  a  sig- 
nal, for  the  whole  assembly  sprang  forward  and  entered 
the  dance. 

"  The  beat  of  the  drum,  the  thrum  of  the  banjo,  swelled 
louder  and  louder.  Under  the  passion  of  the  hour,  tho 
women  tore  off  their  garments,  and  entirely  nude,  went  on 
dancing — no,  not  dancing,  but  wriggling  like  .snakes. 
Above  all  the  noise  rose  the  voice  of  Zozo  : 

"  'Houm  !  dance  Calinda, 
Voudou !  Magnian, 

Aie  !  Aie ! 
Dance  Calinda  ! ' 
6 'The  orgies  were  becoming  frightful.     Suddenly  the 


NEW   ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS. 


530  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

candles  flared  up  and  went  out,  leaving  nothing  but  a 
faint  glow  from  the  dying  pyres.  I  had  grown  sick  from 
heat,  and  an  indescribable  horror  took  possession  of  me. 
With  one  bound  I  was  out  of  the  shed,  and  with  all  speed 
traversed  the  yard,  found  the  gate  open,  and  I  was  in  the 
street  and  near  home  sooner  than  I  can  tell.  If  I  ever 
have  realized  a  sense  of  the  real  visible  presence  of  his 
majesty,  the  devil,  it  was  that  night  among  his  Voudou 
worshipers. " 


CHAPTER  IV. 

VOTJDOUISM  CONTINUED. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  efforts  made  by  some  to  discredit 
the  existence  of  Voudouism,  I  herewith  append  a  corres- 
pondence made  by  a  member  of  the  New  York  World's 
reporterial  corps,  which  relates  some  interesting  facts, 
but  evidences  a  lack  of  intelligent  inquiry  on  the  part  of 
the  writer,  as  will  be  seen  in  a  relation  of  my  own  ex- 
perience, which  will  follow : 

"  I  have  received  your  instructions  to  inquire  into  the 
subject  of  Voudouism  in  Louisiana,  and  I  have  done  my 
best  to  carry  them  out,  but  not,  I  must  confess,  to  any 
very  satisfactory  result.  After  all  my  investigations, 
Voudouism  in  Louisiana  remains  for  me  a  corpse-light,  a 
will-o'-the-wisp,  which  recedes  further  the  nearer  one 
seems  to  approach  it.  Perhaps  the  reason  is  that  the 
real  old-fashioned  Voudouism  of  slave-days  is  dead,  and 
that  only  its  ghost  survives  in  the  form  of  a  superstitious 


NEW  ORLEANS — NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      531 

fear,  which  some  few  shrewd  colored  people  take  advan- 
tage of  to  their  own  profit.  I  might  tell  you  a  good  deal 
about  chains  of  rags  and  wax ;  about  curiously  wrought 
objects  made  of  feathers  found  in  pillows  ;  about  the  in- 
stinctive propensity  of  persons  suffering  from  sleepless- 
ness and  night-mare  to  tear  open  feather  beds  and 
bolsters ;  about  the  horror  that  our  Southern  negroes 
have  of  any  object,  however  trifling,  left  on  their  door- 
steps during  the  night ;  about  people  who  earn  a  living 
by  representing  themselves  as  able  to  counteract  all 
Voudou  charms  with  certain  magical  medicines  and  for- 
mulas ;  about  the  legend  of  St.  John's  Eve  and  the 
orgiastic  dances  on  the  bayou.  But  these  matters  are  not 
the  substance  of  Youdouism.  They  are  not  even  local 
peculiarities  ;  they  may  be  found,  more  or  less,  in  all 
Southern  cities  where  a  large  slave  element  formerly 
existed.  What  I  have  been  seeking  for  is  tangible  facts 
regarding  Louisiana  Youdouism,  and  I  have  not  been  well 
rewarded  for  my  pains.  In  fact,  I  have  seen  in  Northern 
States  things  more  interesting  as  to  Youdouism  than  I 
have  seen  here.  I  have  met  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky  ne- 
groes whose  limbs  have  been  strangely  withered  and 
shrunken,  like  withered  branches  of  dead  trees,  and  they 
attributed  their  misfortune  to  Youdou  poisoning.  They 
did  not  talk  of  witchcraft  at  all,  and  appeared  to  be  more 
than  ordinarily  intelligent  representatives  of  their  race. 
They  simply  told  me  that  they  had  been  poisoned  by 
Youdous.  The  result  was  certainly  peculiar,  for  the  arm 
of  one  and  the  leg  of  another  looked  to  me  like  the 
limbs  of  a  blasted  tree,  with  knobby  excrescences  and 
grotesque  scars  here  and  there.  In  Louisiana  I  have 
seen  nothing  of  the  kind.  I  can  only  insist  with  confi- 
dence that  Youdouism  once  flourished  here  in  a  very 
sinister  shape,  and  that  the  power  of  the  obi-men  lay  in  a 


532  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

knowledge  of  secret  poisons,  animal  or  vegetable,  which 
defied  chemical  analysis.  .What  especially  interested  me 
was  that  the  symptoms  of  Voudou  poisoning,  as  pictured 
in  some  very  quaint  Creole  songs,  are  the  same  as  those  I 
had  beheld  with  my  own  eyes  among:  the  negroes  of  the 
North. 

"  '  Mo  va  fai'  wanga  pour  li 
Mo  fai  tourne  fantome.' 

"  *  I  will  make  a  wanga-charm  to  charm  him  with  ;  I 
will  make  him  a  phantom,  a  ghost.'  Such  is  said  to  be 
the  general  effect  of  Voudou  poisoning,  slow  pining  away 
until  the  victim  becomes  a  living  skeleton.  But  revenge 
is  not  the  only  work  the  Voudou  or  obi-man  is  believed 
capable  of  accomplishing.  He  or  she,  the  Voudou  priest 
or  priestess,  is  supposed  to  be  capable  of  reuniting  separ- 
ated lovers  or  charming  a  man  with  whom  a  girl  is  in 
love  so  that  he  can  love  no  other. 

"  '  Pour  chambe  li 
Na  fai'  grigri.' 

"  'We  shall  make  a  grigri  charm  to  hold  him  fast.' 
This  is  the  refrain  of  an  old  Creole  song  in  which  a  colored 
mother  charms  a  white  man  with  whom  her  daughter  is 
in  love.  Since  I  heard  it  sung  I  have  also  heard  old 
Creole  residents  declare  that  a  fast  young  man  who  allows 
himself  to  be  bewitched  by  pretty  mulatto  girls  may  ex- 
pect to  have  something  very  serious  befall  him.  There 
are  many  who  believe  they  possess  certain  secrets  of 
witchcraft  which  leave  the  man  enamored  of  them  a  life- 
long victim . 

"  I  made  the  acquaintance  here  of  several  old  colored 
women  who  were  considered  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
French  quarter  to  know  more  about  Voudouism  than 
they  had  any  right  to  know.  Speaking  their  own  tongue 
and  treating  them  with  studied  kindness,  I  was  able  to 


NEW  ORLEANS NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      533 

induce  them  to  sing  me  a  number  of  their  patois  songs, 
which  I  copied  down,  unperceived,  upon  my  shirt-cuff.  I 
expressed  much  curiosity  about  the  Voudou  songs  and 
hymns  which  people  talk  about,  and  without  direct 
solicitation,  persuaded  one  of  them  to  sing  one.  Her 
voice  was  a  very  powerful  and  sonorous  alto,  although  an 
old  woman,  and  she  sang  to  a  weird  but  very  sweet  air 
the  following : 

" '  Heron  mande, 

Heron  mande, 
Tigi  li  papa, 

Heron  mande, 
.    Heron  mande, 

Heron  mande, 
Dosi  dans  godo ! 

Ah  tingwaiye, 

Ah  tingwaiye ! 
Ah  waiyah,  ah  waiyah, 

Ah  tingwaiye, 
Tigi  li  papa  ! 

Heron  mande, 
Ahwaya ! 

Ah  tingwaiye, 
Ahwaya ! 

Ah  tingwaiye.' 

* '  I  asked  the  meaning  of  these  strange  and  many- 
voweled  words.  The  only  explanation  I  received  was 
that  the  song  was  very,  very  old,  and  had  «  come  from 
Santo  Domingo ; '  that  the  exact  meaning  of  the  words 
had  been  forgotten,  but  that  the  singer  had  been  taught 
to  regard  it  as  an  invocation  to  the  spirits.  What  spirits  ? 
They  could  not  tell  me  ;  but  the  melody  with  its  quaver- 
ing sixths  and  eighths  of  tones  was  certainly  weird  enough 
to  call  spirits  from  the  vasty  deep.  It  is  a  curious  fact 
that  many  songs  are  still  sung  here  which  have  been 


534  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

handed  down  from  generation  to  generation,  although  the 
meaning  of  the  words  has  been  utterly  forgotten.  Here 
is  another  specimen : 

" '  Ole  has, 

Alii  bono, 
A  ri  cha, 

Alii  bono, 
Cho,  cho,  ti; 

Vale  mi  cho, 
Cho,  cho,  li; 

Vale  mi  cho.' 

*'  The  popular  opinion  of  the  orgiastic  rites  held  on 
such  occasions,  accords  with  the  above  relation.  It  is 
said  that  every  St.  John's  eve  the  Voudous  hold  such  a 
meeting  somewhere  *  out  along  the  bayou,'  or  at  some 
point  on  the  lake  shore,  and  numbers  of  curious  people 
ride  out  to  try  to  find  them.  But  I  have  yet  to  meet  one 
who  succeeded. 

"  Somebody  else  told  me  that  the  old  Congo  dance 
was  very  similar  to  the  Voudou  dance,  minus  the  scan- 
dalous features.  I  saw  the  Congo  dance.  It  used  to  be 
given  every  Sunday  in  the  back  yard  of  a  dilapidated 
property  on  Dumaaie  street,  far  out  toward  the  swamp. 
There  were  large  crowds  there — black,  brown  and  yel- 
low. A  dry-goods  box  and  an  old  pork  barrel  formed 
the  orchestra.  These  were  beaten  with  sticks  or  bones, 
used  like  drumsticks  so  as  to  keep  up  a  continuous  rattle, 
while  some  old  men  and  women  chanted  a  song  that  ap- 
peared to  me  purely  African  in  its  many-vowelled  sylla- 
bification, and  as  monotonous  as  the  old  negro  funeral 
dirge— 

"  '  Tou  piti  cabri  ? 
Ca  Zoe,  nou  ye  ! ' 

"  Owing  to  the  noise  I  could  not  even  attempt  to  catch 


NEW  ORLEANS NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      535 

the  words.  I  asked  several  old  women  to  recite  them 
for  me,  but  they  only  laughed  and  shook  their  heads. 
In  their  patois  they  told  me — 'No  use,  you  could  never 
understand  it.  (7'  est  le  Congo! — it  is  the  Congo!' 
The  dance  was  certainly  peculiar,  and  I  observed  that 
only  a  few  old  persons,  who  had  probably  all  been 
slaves,  knew  how  to  dance  it.  The  women  did  not  move 
their  feet  from  the  ground.  They  only  writhed  their 
bodies  and  swayed  in  undulatory  motions  from  ankle  to 
waist — a  great  deal  of  what  the  French  term  ettes  de- 
hanchaient.  The  men  leaped  and  performed  feats  of 
gymnastic  dancing  which  reminded  me  of  some  steps  in 
the  jota  Aragonesa.  Small  bells  were  attached  to  their 
ankles.  '  Vous  ne  comprenez  pas  cette  danse-la?'  an  old 
woman  asked  me.  I  did  not  altogether  understand  it, 
but  it  appeared  to  be  more  or  less  lascivious  as  I  saw  it. 
I  offered  the  woman  some  money  to  recite  me  the  words 
of  the  Congo  song.  She  consulted  with  another  and 
both  went  off  shaking  their  heads.  I  could  obtain  no 
satisfaction. 

"  Certain  personages  are  spoken  of  here  as  '  Queens  of 
the  Voudous,'  or,  as  the  Creole  negroes  term  it  by  euph- 
emism, *  Reines  des  zozos'  — queens  of  the  birds.  I  have 
seen  them  and  spoken  with  them ,  but  could  learn  nothing 
whatever  upon  the  subject  of  Voudouism.  Generally  it 
is  considered  more  or  less  insulting  to  mention  Voudou- 
ism in  the  presence  of  intelligent  colored  people.  But 
what  I  did  learn  was  that  the  skill  of  their  women  in 
natural  medicine  is  extraordinary  and  of  the  highest  im- 
portance .  Their  herb-decoctions ,  tisanes ,  vegetable  teas , 
vegetable  sudorifics  and  aperients,  vegetable  nerve  medi- 
cines and  vegetable  cures  for  skin  diseases  are  simply 
wonderful.  I  tried  to  induce  one  to  give  me  a  recipe. 
She  refused.  It  was  her  secret,  she  said,  which  she 


536  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

would  impart  only  to  her  children.  Is  it  wonderful  that 
many  of  these  excellent  nurses  are  suspected  of  being 
able  to  use  their  knowledge  for  deadly  and  secret  pur- 
poses?" 

I  cannot  suppress  my  astonishment  at  the  sparseness 
of  this  correspondent's  information,  if,  in  fact,  he  did 
make  any  particular  effort  to  discover  the  mysterious  rites 
of  Voudouism,  for  there  are  hundreds  of  intelligent  white 
and  colored  men  in  New  Orleans  who  can  name  as  many 
localities  in  southern  Louisiana  where  Youdou  ceremonies 
occur  at  least  semi-annually.  I  therefore  repeat  that  a 
belief  in  Voudouism  is  almost  universal  among  the  col- 
ored people  of  the  South,  but  its  stronghold  is  in  Louisi- 
ana, and  in  the  lower  regions  of  Mississippi.  It  also 
thrives  exceedingly  in  the  sea  islands  of  South  Carolina, 
and  in  Georgia.  Not  only  the  ignorant  negroes  of  the 
plantations,  but  also  the  otherwise  intelligent  and  well- 
educated  mulattoes  of  New  Orleans — those  of  the  aristo- 
cratic class  who  are  wealthy  and  refined — are  firm 
believers  in  the  supernatural  powers  of  the  Voudou. 
There  are  colored  men  in  Louisiana  who  have  been  edu- 
cated abroad,  and  are  possessed  of  superior  intelligence 
and  thorough  scientific  acquirements — some  of  them  are 
very  wealthy — who  are  as  much  afraid  of  the  Voudous  as 
the  most  ignorant  field  hands.  Even  learned  white  men 
of  high  social  position  are  in  dread  of  the  mysterious 
powers  of  the  Voudou  priests,  and  frankly  declare  that 
there  is  something  strange  and  unaccountable  about  the 
matter  which  they  cannot  fathom,  and  of  which  they 
stand  in  awe.  Comparatively  little  is  known  in  relation  to 
the  rites  of  Voudouism,  but  it  is  certain  that  its  queens 
are  its  leading  spirits  and  exercise  a  much  greater  influ- 
ence than  the  males.  The  present  Voudou  queen  in 
New  Orleans  is  a  full  blooded  black,  and  is  a  sister  to 


NEW   OELEANS — NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  537 

Harry  Lott,  ex-member  of  the  Louisiana  legislature  from 
Rapides. 

Among  the  symbols  of  Youdouism  serpents  hold 
a  prominent  position,  and  the  Voudous  are  credited 
with  wonderful  powers  over  snakes  of  all  kinds. 
A  Louisiana  planter  of  undoubted  veracity  relates  an 
instance  which  fell  under  his  observation.  A  party  of 
field  hands  were  engaged  gathering  Spanish  moss,  when 
a  sudden  scream  attracted  his  attention,  and  presently  a 
negro  boy  came  running  toward  him  with  a  rattlesnake 
hanging  from  his  arm,  the  poisonous  reptile  having  its 
fangs  firmly  imbedded  in  his  flesh.  The  boy's  father 
caught  the  snake  by  the  tail  and  threw  it  on  the  ground, 
where  it  was  despatched  quickly.  The  case  was  a  serious 
one,  for  the  planter  was  two  or  three  miles  from  his 
house,  and  there  was  no  time  to  procure  medical  assist- 
ance. Just  then  a  couple  of  negroes  came  forward  and 
offered  to  cure  the  boy.  They  first  plunged  his  arm  up 
to  the  shoulder  in  mud,  after  which  they  took  him  to  a 
hut  where  they  passed  some  tiine  in  a  mysterious  proceed- 
ing, which  no  one  was  allowed  to  witness.  The  next 
morning  the  boy  was  about  as  usual,  and  though  he  was 
somewhat  affected  with  nausea  for  a  day  or  two,  his  cure 
was  nevertheless  complete. 

Soon  after  the  incident  just  related,  an  overseer  for  the 
same  planter  was  bitten  by  a  rattlesnake,  and  although  he 
had  the  best  medical  attendance,  he  died  within  twelve 
hours  after  the  fatal  bite  was  received. 

The  19th  of  July  is  an  important  occasion  with  the  be- 
lievers in  Voudouism,  for  on  that  day  begins  a  festival  or 
series  of  weird  ceremonies  by  those  who  are  subjects  of 
this  strange,  occult  religion,  that  usually  continues  for 
four  days.  It  is  firmly  believed  by  many  white  persons 
of  the  highest  classes  that  human  sacrifices  are  sometimes 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

made  during  these  occasions.  Their  reason  for  this  be- 
lief is  founded  upon  the  fact  that  numerous  mysterious 
disappearances  of  black  children  are  noticed  about  the 
time  these  celebrations  occur,  and  it  is  also  asserted  that 
the  bones  of  children  have  been  frequently  discovered  in 
the  neighborhood  where  the  ceremonies  are  performed.  It 
is  popularly  supposed  that  these  religious  rites  are  intended 
to  celebrate  the  fall  of  man  through  the  wiles  of  a 
serpent. 

The  same  planter  to  whom  reference  has  already  been 
made,  relates  another  strange  story,  the  truth  of  which 
he  vouches  for  with  asseverations  of  his  knowledge  re- 
specting the  circumstances.  Upon  a  certain  day  while 
his  field  hands  were  engaged  clearing  a  small  patch  of 
ground,  in  turning  over  a  log  they  discovered  a  very  large 
rattlesnake  that  had  been  lying  underneath.  The  reptile 
at  once  showed  great  anger,  but  as  it  was  known  that 
near-by,  at  a  neighbor's  house,  a  Congo  woman  lived  who 
was  supposed  to  be  a  Voudou,  the  snake  was  reserved  to 
test  the  power  of  this  enchantress,  or  witch,  as  some 
called  her.  The  woman  being  sent  for,  came  presently, 
and  being  requested  to  exhibit  her  influence  over  danger- 
ous reptiles,  she  instantly  complied  by  laying  her  hand  on 
the  snake's  head  ;  instead  of  showing  anger,  it  exhibited 
great  fear  by  boring  its  head  into  the  ground  as  if  trying 
to  hide ;  she  then  picked  the  snake  up  and  handled  it 
with  much  unconcern,  at  once  demonstrating  how  com- 
pletely subject  was  the  most  dangerous  reptile  to  her 
occult  powers. 

The  Voudou  queens  are  invariably  of  a  nervous  tem- 
perament and  subject  to  cataleptic  trances.  A  trust- 
worthy gentleman  of  New  Orleans  relates  that  he  saw  one 
of  these  women  in  a  state  of  suspended  animation  which 
lasted  for  forty-eight  hours  ;  during  all  this  time  she  was 


NEW  ORLEANS — NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      539 

apparently  dead,  according  to  all  the  tests  that  could  be 
applied.  Upon  returning  to  life,  she  loosed  her  tongue 
in  an  incoherent  harangue  of  strange  words,  all  of  which 
were  carefully  remembered  by  her  colored  companions 
who  regarded  her  utterances  as  instructions  from  the 
spirit  world. 

One  of  the  most  noted  as  well  as  best  authenticated 
cases  of  Voudouism,  in  its  application  to  the  eradication 
of  disease,  occurred  some  years  ago  under  the  following 
circumstances.  Kev.  Mr.  Turner,  a  colored  clergyman 
of  great  influence  and  exemplary  piety,  who  was  at  the 
time  chaplain  of  the  Louisiana  legislature,  became 
afflicted  with  a  strange  malady,  a  correct  diagnosis  of 
which  his  physicians  were  wholly  unable  to  give.  He 
acted  like  one  with  delirium  tremens,  though  he  was  an 
abstemious  man,  not  given  even  to  the  most  temperate 
use  of  stimulants.  The  physicians  tried  in  vain  to  relieve 
him,  but  finding  their  labors  were  aggravating,  rather 
than  curative,  Mr.  Turner  concluded  that  he  was  the  vic- 
tim of  a  Voudou  charm.  He  therefore  sought  the  ser- 
vices of  Madame  Lott,  the  Voudou  queen,  who  responded 
at  once,  and,  upon  seeing  her  patient,  she  instantly  de- 
clared that  his  apprehensions  were  correct,  but  that  she 
could  soon  relieve  him.  His  case  was  now  well  known, 
and  as  some  excitement  was  created,  to  show  her  powers 
more  generally,  she  directed  that  Mr.  Turner  be  taken 
to  the  colored  church,  and  that  several  prominent  persons 
be  notified  that  she  would  in  public  drive  out  the  evil 
spirit  that  possessed  her  patient.  The  church  was  crowded 
in  response  to  this  announcement,  among  the  audience 
being  Lieutenant-Governor  Dunn,  and  a  host  of  other 
prominent  white  citizens.  Mr.  Turner  was  laid  upon  a 
table  in  the  centre  of  this  audience,  to  enable  Madame 
Lott  to  manipulate  his  hands  and  rub  him  with  a  myste- 


540  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

rious  pungent  oil ;  a  few  moments  spent  in  this  ceremony 
sufficed  to  effect  her  object,  for  Mr.  Turner  vomited  up 
a  black  mouse,  that  Madame  Lott  declared  was  an  evil 
spirit  put  upon  him  by  a  Voudou  enemy.  His  cure  was 
instantaneous  and  thorough. 

In  the  month  of  January,  1882,  another  instance  of 
Voudou  necromancy  occurred  on  a  plantation  near  Bayou 
Tesche,  Louisiana,  which,  having  been  verified  by  several 
prominent  witnesses,  may  be  relied  on  as  being  true,  with- 
out any  exaggeration.  The  daughter  of  a  wealthy  planter 
fell  ill  of  a  strange  disease,  that  at  first  assumed  the  na- 
ture of  extreme  nervousness,  but  this  partly  subsiding, 
a  marasmus  succeeded  that  created  great  alarm  in  the 
family.  From  a  fleshy,  plump  and  beautiful  girl,  in  a 
few  weeks  she  was  reduced  to  the  frailest  proportions 
and  was  apparently  upon  the  point  of  death.  It  was 
while  she  was  in  this  condition  that  an  old  darkey,  living 
two  miles  from  Bayou  Tesche,  saw  her,  and  he  at  once 
declared  that  she  had  been  Voudoued,  and  that  the  charm 
had  been  laid  upon  her  by  an  old  black  witch  who  resided 
within  a  short  distance  of  the  plantation.  Upon  receipt 
of  this  information  it  was  remembered  that  only  a  short 
time  before  the  young  girl  became  afflicted  she  had  some 
difficulty  with  the  old  wench  mentioned,  and  that  she  was 
then  threatened  in  an  unintelligible  lingo,  a  muttering  of 
some  words  which  were  partly  demonstrated  by  angry 
gestures  that  accompanied  them. 

The  old  darkey  was  considered,  among  blacks  in  that 
neighborhood,  as  having  mysterious  powers  which  he  had 
used  on  many  occasions  to  heal  the  sick  and  counteract 
evil  influences,  so  it  was  decided  by  the  planter  to  place 
his  daughter  under  conditions  prescribed  by  the  old  obi 
negro  and  thus  test  a  power  which  he  had  heard  so  much 
of  but  never  saw  exercised. 


NEW  ORLEANS—NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.  541 


542  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

Accordingly,  the  young  lady  was  carried  from  her 
home  to  a  cabin  that  stood  nearly  a  mile  off,  which  at 
the  time  was  not  occupied,  but  in  former  years  had 
sheltered  several  slave  families  in  succession.  A  pallet 
of  straw  was  provided  and  laid  on  a  bench,  upon  which 
the  girl  was  fixed  preparatory  to  undergoing  the  cere- 
mony of  exorcism.  Everything  being  ready,  the  old 
darkey  introduced,  with  much  ceremony,  eight  negro 
women,  whom  he  had  engaged  to  act  as  auxiliaries,  and 
these,  forthwith,  began  to  chant  a  most  ghostly,  hollow, 
dread-infecting  chorus,  quite  weird  enough,  it  would  ap- 
pear, to  disturb  a  dead  body.  While  they  were  thus  en- 
gaged the  ancient,  cotton-headed  obi  priest  sat  down  be- 
side a  small  fire  he  had  started,  and  threw  herbs  into  the 
flames,  at  the  same  time  muttering  many  characteristic 
phrases  in  patois.  An  hour  or  more  of  time  was  thus 
spent  in  the  ceremony  of  casting  out  a  devil,  which  was 
supposed  to  possess  the  girl,  but  it  proved  quite  sufficient, 
for,  strange  to  relate,  she  recovered  directly  from  her 
singular  affliction  and  walked  back  to  her  home  without 
assistance.  These  facts  are  all  attested  by  the  father, 
who  is  sorely  perplexed  at  such  a  revelation  of  super- 
natural power  on  his  own  premises. 

The  influence  exerted  by  the  disciples  of  Voudouism 
over  the  colored  people  can  hardly  be  exaggerated. 
Planters  pay  Voudou  queens  large  sums  of  money  for 
their  influence  in  preserving  peace  and  satisfaction  among 
their  hands.  Politicians  also  use  this  occult  agency  to 
further  their  ends,  and  find  it  exceedingly  potential.  In 
fact,  not  a  few  colored  aspirants  for  office  owe  their  suc- 
cess entirely  to  the  influence  of  Voudou  priests,  who  do 
not  regard  their  power  too  sacred  to  barter  it  for  cash  in 
hand. 


NEW  ORLEANS — NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS,      543 

CHAPTER  V. 

AFRICAN  AND  AMERICAN  VOUDOU  WORSHIP  COMPARED. 

IF  we  seek  for  the  origin  of  Voudouism,  our  investi- 
gations are  sure  to  lead  us  directly  to  Africa,  where  will 
be  found  the  same  superstitious  rites  as  those  already  de- 
scribed, only  in  Africa  they  are  more  ferocious,  in  that 
human  sacrifices  are  so  painfully  numerous  that  we  must 
conclude  they  are  regarded  as  an  essential  prelude  to  all 
the  important  ceremonies.  Human  life  in  Ashantee  and 
Dahomey  is  important,  apparently,  only  for  the  amount 
of  blood  it  yields,  but  there  is  still  a  striking  analogy  be- 
tween their  worship  and  our  Southern  Voudouism,  as 
will  be  understood  after  a  mature  consideration  of  the 
subject.  Let  us  notice  the  more  salient  points  of  native 
African  worship  and  superstition  by  reference  to  modern 
instances  : 

Only  a  few  months  ago  the  King  of  Ashantee  decided 
to  have  built  a  royal  palace  in  Coomassie ;  one  that 
should  reflect  some  of  the  supposed  splendor  of  his  king- 
dom. In  that  country  burned  brick  and  frame  buildings 
are  quite  unknown,  adobe  and  thatch  being  the  material 
used.  In  preparing  adobe  brick,  a  "swish"  is  first 
made,  which  consists  of  mud  and  water,  but  this  Ashan- 
tee king,  influenced  by  a  monstrous  superstition,  refused 
to  use  water,  esteeming  blood  more  virtuous  in  prevent- 
ing evils,  of  any  nature,  from  visiting  his  kingdom,  and 
occupants  of  the  new  palace  particularly ;  he  therefore 
ordered  a  sacrifice  to  be  made  of  two  hundred  virgins, 
whose  blood  should  be  preserved  for  preparing  the 
"  swish."  The  dreadful  mandate  was  duly  executed,  and 
this  innocent  blood  is  now  a  part  of  the  palace  walls. 


544 


MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 


A  VOUDOD  DANCE  IN  ASHANTEE. 


NEW  ORLEANS NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.       545 

The  Ashantees,  like  their  neighbors*  the  Ffons  of  Da- 
homey, re^el  in  human  blood.  The  king's  Ochras,  or 
buffoons,  are  slaughtered  when  the  royal  monarch  dies, 
and  the  "  king's  stool,"  on  which  is  sprinkled  a  few 
drops  of  the  blood  of  every  person  executed,  is  always 
dyed  with  the  blood  of  recent  sacrifices.  The  execution- 
ers are  men  of  high  rank.  The  most  trifling  offence  is 
punished  by  decapitation,  and  so  familiar  is  this  scene  to 
the  residents  in  Coomassie  that  when  the  little  son  of 
one  of  the  German  missionaries — who  were  freed  by 
King  Koffee  on  the  approach  of  the  English  troops  in 
1881 — was  angry  with  anyone  he  would  exclaim  :  "  Your 
head  will  fall  to-morrow!"  The  town  resembles  a 
charnel  house.  The  piles  of  skulls  and  bones  heaped  up 
at  intervals,  testify  to  the  long  continuance  of  these  in- 
human practices,  and  even  when  the  army  of  Sir  Garnet 
Wolseley  entered  the  place  the  putrifying  bodies,  still  un- 
buried,  filled  the  air  with  a  dreadful  stench. 

The  stories  repeated  so  often  of  atrocities  perpetrated 
in  Coomassie  are  a  terrible  example  of  one  of  those  fear- 
ful 4 '  survivals  ' '  which  the  ethnologist  is  daily  unearth- 
ing. If  the  king  mixes  his  palace  "  swish",,  with  the 
blood  of  two  hundred  virgins,  he  is  only  a  nineteenth 
century  representative  of  the  twelve  master  masons,  who, 
When  the  walls  of  Copenhagen  sank  as  fast  as  they  were 
built,  vaulted  into  them  an  innocent  girl  at  play,  and 
thus  allayed  the  wrath  of  the  Northern  "  nisser."  The 
Bridge  of  Arta  fell  again  and  again,  until  the  workmen 
Walled  in  their  master's  wife,  and  we  are  told  that,  in  ac- 
cordance with  her  dying  curse,  it  trembles  to  this  very 
day.  There  is  scarce  a  church  in  Germany  or  Denmark 
to  which  some  such  legend  does  not  attach,  and  in  Poly- 
nesia temples  are  pointed  out  the  foundations  of  which 
are  imbedded  in  human  -bodies.  Two  years  ago  the  na- 
35 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

live  quarters  of  Madras  were  wildly  excited  over  a  rumor 
that  the  government  was  about  to  sacrifice  several  victims 
in  order  to  insure  the  safety  of  the  new  harbor  works, 
and  a  few  years  earlier  the  same  idea  prevailed  in  Cal- 
cutta, when  the  Hooghly  bridge  was  being  constructed, 
that  for  a  time  the  people  dreaded  to  go  around  after 
dark  lest  they  should  be  kidnapped.  In  Galam,  Africa, 
boys  and  girls  are  buried  alive  before  the  chief  gate  of 
the  city  as  a  fetish  to  make  it  impassable  to  an  enemy, 
and  in  Bambarra,  Great  Bassam  and  Yarriba  the  same 
custom  prevailed  or  still  prevails.  In  Borneo,  in  Japan, 
in  Burmah,  and,  in  addition  to  many  other  regions,  in 
the  Punjaub,  like  ideas  of  the  efficacy  of  human  victims 
to  insure  the  safety  of  buildings  hold  their  ground  or 
were  universal  within  recent  times.  Into  each  post-hole 
of  the  gates  of  Tavoy  a  criminal  was  placed  ;  human  vic- 
tims were  burned  under  the  gates  of  Mandelay,  and  under 
the  fortress  of  Thatung  a  queen  is  said  to  have  been 
drowned  in  a  Burmese  reservoir  to  make  the  dike  safe, 
and  the  life  of  a  widow's  son  was  taken  by  the  rajah  of 
Sialkot  with  a  view  to  insure  the  stability  of  one  of  the 
bastions  of  his  fort. 

The  atrocities  perpetrated  in  Africa  and  other  heathen 
countries  are  all  in  pursuance  of  decrees  issued  from  a 
priesthood  whose  acts  are  supposed  to  be  influenced  by 
the  powers  of  darkness.  Instead  of  recognizing  a  merci- 
ful spirit,  which  we  call  God,  these  barbarians  call  upon 
and  labor  with  the  spirit  of  evil — the  devil.  All  good, 
as  well  as  all  evil,  is  attributed  to  this  demon,  conse- 
quently sacrifices  are  made  to  appease  the  devil's  wrath, 
or  to  invite  his  kind  offices.  This  demoralizing,  if  not 
damnable,  belief  has  now  a  large  following,  by  trans- 
planting, in  the  Southern  States,  where  in  earlier  years 
human  sacrifices  were  undoubtedly  rendered  up  with 


NEW  ORLEANS NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      547 

great  ceremony.  The  reason  why  they  are  not  still  con- 
tinued will  be  found  in  the  civilizing  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  particularly  in  the  deterrent  effects  of  a 
stringent  law  that  refuses  to  exempt  priest  or  laymen. 
It  is  said  that  when  England  ordered  an  investigation  to 
be  made  into  the  atrocities  committed  at  Coomassie,  that 
the  King  of  Ashantee,  Koffee  Kalkalli,  exhibited  great 
indignation  and  declared  that  he  would  not  submit  to  any 
interference  with  the  religion  of  his  people.  But  upon 
hearing  that  a  large  British  force  had  actually  arrived  at 
Sierre  Leone,  he  stoutly  denied  the  crime  his  fanatical 
Fetishism  had  just  consummated,  and  to  allay  English 
temper  he  sent  a  gold  axe  to  Windsor,  which  is  now  ex- 
hibited in  company  with  his  brother's  umbrella  and  the 
war-club  of  Tha  Rombau  of  Fiji. 

About  1785,  when  every  State,  except  Massachusetts, 
permitted  the  keeping  of  slaves,  and  recognized  slavery 
by  statutory  enactments,  Voudouism  in  America  was 
quite  a  different  thing  contrasted  with  what  it  is  now. 
At  that  time  the  importation  of  kidnapped  Africans  was 
a  trade  enormous  in  its  proportions.  These  natives,  of 
course,  brought  with  them  all  their  original  customs  and 
superstitions,  and  though  they  were  under  espionage,  yet 
nothing  prevented  an  observance  of  many  rites,  not  a 
few  of  which  are  still  practiced  in  all  the  Southern 
States. 

As  the  immigration  increased,  adding  to  those  that  had 
been  slaves  long  enough  to  become  familiar  with  the  new 
civilization,  Fetish  worship  became  more  diversified  with 
inherited  ceremonies,  and  in  Florida,  particularly,  many 
human  sacrifices  were  made,  but  in  such  a  concealed 
manner  that  there  were  few  discoveries.  However,  when 
it  was  positively  ascertained  that  children  were  killed  in 
these  orgies,  no  further  punishment  than  striping  was  in- 


548  MYSTERIES     AND     MISERIES. 

flicted  on  the  perpetrators,  because  execution  would  have 
involved  the  destruction  of  valuable  property  without 
any  recompense.  Executing  negroes  in  slavery  times 
was  too  much  like  killing  horses  at  this  day,  to  permit 
such  punishment. 

But  severe  discipline,  together  with  the  ameliorating 
influence  of  Christianity,  which  was  persistently  preached 
among  all  slaves,  gradually  eliminated  ferociousness  from 
this  ignorant  people,  and  caused  a  modified  worship  to 
succeed  the  bloody  Fetish  carnivals,  which  has  ever  since 
been  known  as  Voudouism.  From  whence  this  name  is 
derived  I  am  wholly  at  a  loss  to  conceive,  though  my  belief 
is,  that  it  is  so  called  from  an  expression  often  repeated 
in  the  worship,  resembling  in  sound  a  Congo  word. 

The  analogy  between  native  Africans  and  our  Southern 
negroes,  or  those  who  practice  Voudouism,  is  seen  in  the 
following  peculiarities  common  to  each  class  : 

They  apply  spiritual  essence  to  material  things,  and 
frequently  make  amulets  of  stone,  teeth,  weapons,  bones 
and  carved  images ;  these  they  regard  with  great  con- 
cern, believing  them  possessed  of  mystical  power  to  pro- 
tect the  wearer  and  work  injury  upon  enemies.  In  cases 
where  these  amulets,  or  fetishes,  do  not  exert  the  influ- 
ence they  are  supposed  to  possess  (for  instance,  the 
wearer  meets  with  some  evil  which  he  believes  the  amu- 
let should  have  prevented),  it  is  taken  off  and  often 
stamped  violently  under  foot  as  though  it  were  sensible 
to  pain. 

Among  the  superstitious  negroes  of  Africa  and  America 
there  is  a  similar  belief  respecting  the  devil ;  they  se- 
riously believe  that  this  mysterious  personage  prowls 
among  the  people,  assuming  all  manner  of  shapes,  and 
having  a  happy  habit  of  distributing  himself  among  many 
persons  at  the  same  time  ;  that  he  enters  one  in  the  shape 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  549 

of  a  mouse,  another  in  the  form  of  a  snake,  and  yet 
others  as  a  spirit  controlling  all  their  acts.  To  counter- 
act this  general  association  of  the  evil  one  who  creates 
dangerous  propensities,  they  practice  exorcism  and  in- 
cantations, which  ceremonies  serve  the  double  purpose  of 
ejecting  the  devil,  and  also  substituting  a  spiritual  influ- 
ence that  speedily  repairs  any  injury  the  devil  may  have 
worked. 

The  analogy  extends  still  further,  for  the  identity  of 
American  blacks  and  original  Africans  may  be  readily 
perceived  in  their  use  of  herbs,  in  kind  and  preparation. 
At  all  Voudou  celebrations  strange  roots  and  leaves  will 
be  found  that  are  used  by  Voudou  queens  to  work 
charms,  cure  maladies,  and  also  to  wreak  vengeance,  for 
some  of  them  are  poisonous  as  henbane,  while  others  act 
with  slow  effect,  yet  so  sure  as  to  defy  the  science  of  pro- 
fessional toxicologists. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

HOUSEHOLD  GODS  AND  SUPERSTITIONS. 

As  has  been  previously  remarked,  no  race  of  people 
are  so  given  to  superstition  as  the  negroes.  It  appears 
to  be  a  part  of  their  nature  to  hold  in  constant  dread 
some  supernatural,  variable  and  undefinable  influence 
that  operates,  in  some  respects,  like  the  melancholia  of 
madness.  There  is  scarcely  one  of  the  race,  however  in- 
telligent, that  does  not  possess  some  inherited  taint  of 
this  character.  Those  who  have  been  shackled  by  slav- 
ery and  disadvantaged  by  circumstances  tending  to  con- 


550  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

fine  them  in  ignorance,  are  scarcely  less  afflicted  with 
nightmares  of  dreadful  imagination  than  are  those  whose 
reason  has  been  dethroned  until  frightful  spectres  are 
painted  on  the  brain.  To  use  a  facetious  expression, 
there  is  no  well  regulated  negro  community  that  does  not 
possess  either  a  haunted  house  or  a  powerful  witch,  and 
in  the  Southern  States  both  these  agencies  of  ghostly 
revelation  are  in  a  majority  of  negro  households. 

Many  peculiarities  are  found  in  the  means  used  by 
negroes  to  ward  off  evil  spirits  and  attract  good  ones, 
and  so  powerful  are  their  impressions  that  every  passion 
is  readily  subordinated  to  what  they  esteem  the  super- 
natural. Christianity,  undoubtedly,  has  a  strong  hold 
on  this  people  of  pre-eminently  adverse  circumstances, 
but  overwhelming  religious  excitement  instantly  vanishes 
in  the  presence  of  a  black  cat.  In  fact,  a  sable  feline  is 
more  potential,  under  certain  conditions,  than  all  the 
hosts  of  heaven.  A  revival  meeting  may  be  in  progress, 
with  the  place  of  worship  pandemoniumized  by  delirious 
shouts  from  an  audience  filled  with  religious  enthusiasm ; 
the  preacher,  exhorting  with  a  power  like  one  overflowing 
with  spiritual  afflatus,  and  his  audience  feeling  conscious 
that  the  immediate  presence  of  God  is  perceptible  ;  yet, 
amid  all  this  zeal  and  sanctified  consciousness^  should  a 
black  cat  enter  the  church  at  this  time,  every  religious 
feeling  would  be  dissipated  with  such  astonishing  sudden- 
ness as  to  produce  a  panic ;  they  would  regard  the  cir- 
cumstance with  the  same  feeling  of  terror  £s  though  the 
devil  had  leaped  into  the  room  blowing  fire  from  his  nos- 
trils and  brandishing  a  three-handled,  four-pronged  broil- 
ing spit  with  which  to  impale  every  negro  in  the  con- 
gregation. I  refer,  of  course,  to  the  more  ignorant  class 
of  negroes,  those  who  are  still  without  the  pale  of  culti- 
vation, both  by  association  and  example,  and  it  is  of 
these  I  now  write. 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO   SUPERSTITIONS.  551 

Shakespeare,  undoubtedly,  had  some  knowledge  of 
Voudouism,  for  the  witches'  carnival  in  Macbeth  is  a  por- 
traiture of  negro  superstitions  that  is  too  truthful  for  it 
to  be  a  coinage  of  his  fertile  brain ;  and,  besides,  it  is 
well  known  that  alchemy,  as  practiced  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  was  an  importation  from  Africa. 

Black  cats  having  no  white  hairs  except  in  the  tips  of 
their  tails,  are  very  highly  prized  by  the  negroes,  not  a 
few  of  whom  would  willingly  part  with  nearly  all  their 
accumulations  to  possess  such  a  prize,  for  these  cats  are 
supposed  to  embody  the  spirit  of  some  dead  person  sent 
back  to  earth  to  dispel  evil  and  bring  good  luck ;  they 
are  also  believed  to  be  particularly  interested  in  their 
masters,  so  that  such  cats  are  better  than  amulets — in 
fact,  are  little  short  of  genii,  with  power  to  exalt  anyone 
to  the  highest  position  of  wealth  and  happiness. 

Snakes  are  next  in  importance  to  cats,  particularly 
those  most  venomous.  The  fangs  of  a  rattle-snake  are 
very  valuable  as  charms,  and  the  poison  extracted  from 
these  reptiles  is  used  in  all  Fetish  ceremonies ;  negro 
witches  also  employ  this  poison  sometimes  dangerously, 
but  more  frequently  as  an  antidote.  The  manner  in 
which  deadly  snakes  are  handled  by  Voudou  celebrants 
induces  the  belief  that  some  strange  psychologizing  in- 
fluence is  used  which  no  white  man  understands ;  they 
do  not  employ  music  to  charm,  or  any  essence  to  stupefy 
the  snakes,  so  that  a  reliance  for  supremacy  is  placed  en- 
tirely upon  the  Voudous'  mysterious  power  to  render 
submissive  naturally  deadly  reptiles.  This  influence,  so 
strange,  has  never  been  explained  to  any  white  person, 
and  will,  doubtless,  always  remain  as  secret  as  the 
philosopher's  stone. 

The  negroes  have  a  very  singular  superstition  concern- 
ing the  efficacy  of  amulets  made  from  a  dead  man's 


552  MYSTERIES    A^YD    MISERIES. 

bones.  In  earlier  years  grave-yards  were  frequently 
desecrated  by  negro  resurrectionists  whose  sole  impulse 
was  to  obtain  parts  of  the  corpse  from  which  to  make 
charms.  It  is  even  now  common  for  negroes  to  carry 
about  on  their  persons  the  hand  of  a  dead  man  or  woman, 
with  all  the  putrifying  flesh  attached.  Bodies  of  mur- 
dered men  are  most  sought  for,  as  these  are  regarded  as 
possessing  greater  mystic  virtue  than  the  bones  of  one 
that  has  come  to  a  natural  death.  It  may  be  asserted, 
with  positive  assurance,  that  nearly  one-half  of  the  river 
negroes — steamboat  roustabouts — and  those  working  on 
plantations  in  the  South,  carry  either  in  their  pockets  -or 
attached  to  strings  about  their  necks,  finger-bones  of  a 
human  hand.  The  thumb  is  more  generally  used  as  an 
amulet,  but  every  finger-bone  is  regarded  as  being  very 
efficacious  in  bringing  good  luck. 

The  superstition  which  now  prevails  throughout  the 
world  respecting  the  virtue  possessed  by  a  piece  of  rope 
with  which  a  man  has  been  hanged,  had  its  origin  among 
certain  tribes  of  Africa.  These  profoundly  ignorant  na- 
tives have,  since  history  began  to  record  their  character- 
istics, believed  that  every  instrument  causing  death  is  en- 
dow.ed  with  a  supernatural  power  which  may  be  utilized 
by  any  one  who  possesses  the  ghostly  trophy ;  these 
relics  of  death,  as  it  were,  are  still  greedily  secured  and 
kept  as  fetishes  by  the  negroes  of  Africa  and  America 
alike.  We  have  HQW  the  horrifying  spectacle  of  a  greedy 
scramble  among  white  men  and  women  every  time  an  of- 
ficial execution  takes  place,  to  obtain  pieces  of  the  rope 
with  which  the  hanging  was  accomplished,  and  sometimes 
parts  of  the  scaffold  are  also  broken  off  and  preserved  by 
superstitious  persons  who  are  unconscious  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  custom  originated. 

To  those  who  have  a  penchant  for  exploring  uncanny 


NEW  ORLEANS— NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      553 

subjects  an  interesting  field  of  discovery  is  open  among 
Southern  negroes  ;  nearly  any  colored  person,  whether 
male  or  female,  can  point  out  a  spot  which  is  declared  to 
be  haunted  ;  and  thousands  may  be  found  who  will  make 
solemn  oath  that  they  have  seen  ghosts  many  times  flit- 
ting about  with  a  blue  light,  trying  to  reveal  mysteries 
that  baffle  human  understanding  by  strange  gesturing 
and  unearthly  groans. 

I  call  to  miaid  now  a  conversation  I  once  had  with  an 
old  white-headed  negro  of  Louisiana,  who  occasionally 
preached  in  the  neighborhood  of  Baton  Rouge.  He 
was,  in  every  respect,  a  genuine  sample  of  the  way-down 
darkey  that  had  seen  much  and  heard  a  great  deal  more, 
so  that  his  opinion  exerted  a  controlling  influence  among 
the  colored  people  of  his  parish.  After  indulging  in  a 
general  conversation  with  him  for  some  time,  I  asked : 

"Well,  uncle  Joe,  it  has  been  told  me  that  ghosts 
have  been  seen  about  the  premises  of  the  old  deserted 
brick  house  just  above  here  on  the  river ;  now,  I  have 
never  been  a  strong  believer  in  spirits  visiting  the  earth, 
so  if  you  have  any  experience  to  relate  respecting  ghosts, 
I  should  like  to  hear  it." 

4 'Is  dat  so,  marsa ;  why,  hain't  yo'  nebber  seed  no 
ghostes  in  yo'  life?  " 

"No,  I  never  did  ;  but  it  is  not  because  I  have  not 
wanted  to  see  them,  if  they  really  exist.  Tell  me  what 
you  know  about  them." 

"Well,  sah,  I'se  seed  lots  ob  'em,  an'  if  yo'  will  go 
up  to  de  ole  red  house  what  stan' son  Marsa 's  planta- 
tion, an'  wait  dar  till  de  moon  goes  down,  at  midnight, 
yo'  can  see  a  hull  graveyawd  ob  ghostes  runnin'  about 
de  place  like  dey  had  sheets  on  'em.  I  war  up  dar  one 
dawk  night  long  time  ago,  wid  a  passel  ob  yallah  boys, 
but  yo'  heah  me  I  I  nebber  went  back  dar  no  moah. 


554  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

We  had  been  a  huntin'  coons,  an'  de  dogs  dey  got  to 
runnin'  somphin  dat  took  a  straight  shoot  f  o'  de  ribber ; 
we  runned  arter  'em  fas'  as  we  could,  until  dey  stopped 
at  de  big  house,  an'  dar  dey  bawked  an'  howled  like  dey 
got  sumphin  treed.  We  niggahs  nebber  heerd  dat  de 
place  war  ha'nted,  so  we  jes  come  to  de  fac'  dat  dar  war  a 
fox  in  de  house.  De  doahs  dey  war  all  locked,  so  we 
clum  in  at  de  windah  to  cotch  de  animil.  Well,  sah,  w'en 
we  all  got  in,  de  dogs  dey  run  'roun'  wus'n  befoah  an' 
changed  dar  bawkin'  to  a  howlin'  dat  war  powahful  un- 
comfo'tabl'.  I  heerd  a  noise  in  one  room  ob  de  house 
an'  war  pooty  shauh  dat  de  fox  war  in  dar,  so  I  calls  to 
de  boys  an'  we  run  in  to  cotch  mistah  fox,  but  de  good 
%Lawd  !  I  run  ag'inst  de  mos'  awf  ulest  ghost  dat  yo'  ebah 
sot  yo'  eyes  on.  Dar  he  war  wid  his  head  a  tetchin'  de 
ceilin'  an'  his  ahms  reachin'  'cross  de  whole  room ;  his 
eyes  dey  war  big  as  de  moon,  an  'in  his  mouf  he  had  a 
fiah'dat  war  a  roarin'  an'  a  cracklin'  like  an'  oberflow  in 
de  debil's  hottes'  cornah.  Well,  dat  is  'bout  all  I  seed 
ob  him,  case  yo'  know  dar  war  a  powahful  lot  ob  'ten- 
tion  needin'  me  on  de  outside  'bout  dat  time,  but  I  hearn 
him  gofhwittf  fhwittl  fhwitt!  free  times,  fo'  all  de 
world  like  an'  ole  cat  when  he's  gibbin  a  da'h  to  de 
Thomas  what  crosses  his  backyawd.  Well,  sah,  yo' 
know  de  doahs  dey  war  all  shet  an'  dar  war  no  way  to 
git  out  only  by  de  windah s  ;  de  one  what  war  open  got 
chuck  full  ob  niggahs  so  quick  dat  dey  got  fas'  in  dar, 
an'  den  dar  was  tr'ubl'.  Great  Lawd  and  de  Prophets  ! 
'bout  two  hundred  ghostes  come  rushin'  into  de  room 
whar  de  windah  was  chuck  up  wid  skeered  niggahs,  an' 
dey  all  commenced  to  groan  like  de  population  in  de 
lowah  kingdom,  an'  dar  war  sich  'casion  behin'  us  dat 
hell-fiah  would  a  been  a  blessiii'  in  comparison.  It  war 
'bout  sixteen  yeahs  befoah  we  got  out  ob  de  windah,  but 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO   SUPERSTITIONS.  555 

de  nex'  mawmV,  when  de  plantation  ho'n  blowed, 
ebery  one  oh  us  niggahs  war  white  as  Dick  Johnson's 
lead  boss,  an'  3-0'  see  dat  de  colah  haiut  wowu  off  yit." 

"Well,  uncle  Joe,  that  was  a  rather  exciting  expe- 
rience, and  I  believe  your  story,  only  there  is  one  little 
point,  of  110  particular  importance,  that  is  not  exactly 
plain.  I  can't  understand  how  you  could  remain  stuck 
fast  in  the  window  for  sixteen  years  and  yet  be  in  Baton 
Rouge  on  the  morning  following  your  adventure." 

"  Dat's  easy  'splained,  Marsa,  case  yo'  see  'twas  'spe- 
rience  dat  I  war  tellin'  'bout.  What  I  means  is  dat  I 
was  skeered  outen  sixteen  yeahs  ob  my  life,  'sides  a 
losin'  ob  my  colah  ;  yo'  couldn't  grease  dis  niggah's 
face  now  wid  any  'vantage,  case  ile  an'  tan  doant  mix 
well  like  bar's  grease  an'  a  black  skin.  Ovah  hyar  in  de 
hollar  dar  is  a  old  wench  dat  takes  cayar  ob  two  ghostes, 
an'  she  haint  feerd  ob  'em  neider." 

"Takes  care  of  two  ghosts  !  Why,  what  do  you  mean, 
uncle  Joe?  " 

"I  jes  means  what  I  says,  'case  it's  so.  Dem  two 
ghostes  's  bin  in  her  fambly  fo'  moah  yeahs  dan  yo'  got 
on  yo'  head.  She  calls  'em  her  chillun  an'  yo'  ought  to 
see  how  dey  brings  her  good  luck.  One  ob  'em  is  like  a 
black  cat  wid  white  ha'rs  in  he  tail,  an'  de  odder  is  a 
mouse  wid  freckles  on  he  face." 

"  This  is  something  strange,  Joe  !  you  say  the  cat  and 
mouse  are  older  than  I  am  and  that  they  bring  her  good 
luck  ;  how  do  they  influence  fortune?" 

"  Ef  yo'  wants  to  know  all  'bout  dat  go  ovah  an'  ax 
old  Silas  Pillsburrah,  he  tell  yo'  moah  'bout  ghostes  an' 
Voudou ;  an'  maybe  he  took  yo'  ovah  to  de  wench's 
house." 

I  saw  in  this  answer  that  I  was  either  scaring  up  an 
ignis  fatuus  or  trenching  upon  forbidden  ground,  for  it 


556  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

was  apparent  that  old  Joe  would  not  tell  me  all  he  knew, 
because  the  Voudou  oath  of  secrecy  restrained  his  other- 
wise free  inclination.  He  did  tell  me,  however,  many 
ghost  stories,  in  which  he  was  always  an  unhappy  partici- 
pant, so  that  I  could  no  longer  wonder  why  his  complex- 
ion was  of  such  a  motley,  splotched  hue ;  the  frequent 
scares  to  which  he  had  been  subjected  had  evidently 
struck  in  and  left  their  trade-mark  on  his  features. 


CHAPTER  VII 

DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SLAVERY  DAYS. 

FREEDMEN  and  plantation  owners  alike  look  back  upon 
the  old  times  of  slavery  with  a  recollection  that  mingles 
sadness  with  much  sweetness  of  by-gone  joys  ;  the  mem- 
ory of  those  years  rings  in  many,  many  ears  like  a  fad- 
ing cadence  that  still  leaves  the  freshness  of  some  enrap- 
turing song,  all  rhythm  and  happiness  that  gives  us  imag- 
inary foretastes  of  pleasures  that  lie  between  all  life  and 
the  great  beyond. 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  contemplate  the  grievous,  though 
salient,  features  of  slavery,  for  all  its  wrongs  are  now 
buried  in  catacombs  of  the  past,  and  from  this  relega- 
tion let  there  be  no  resurrection,  for  there  is  too  little 
real  happiness  in  this  world  to  justify  the  bringing  forth 
again  of  dead  issues  that  can  only  befoul  the  atmosphere 
of  our  existence.  I  shall,  therefore,  regard  only  the 
bright  characters  and  sympathetic  coloring  that  once  dis- 
tinguished slave-life  in  America. 

With  all  their  ignorance  and  superstition,  it  musfc  be 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  557 

admitted  that  no  race  of  people  possess  more  generous 
dispositions  and  faithful  hearts  than  the  negroes.  Where 
one  revolted  under  the  bonds  of  slavery,  a  thousand  re- 
mained steadfast,  regarding  their  masters  with  genuine, 
even  filial,  affection  and  reverence.  When  the  relations 
thus  borne  were  severed  by  emancipation,  thousands  of 
negroes  went  to  their  freedom  looking  back,  through 
half-blinding  tears,  upon  the  old  fields,  cabins,  and  sur- 
roundings they  had  known  from  childhood.  Ever  since 
the  war  every  plantation  has  been  a  Mecca  for  old  freed- 
men,  drawn  back  again  by  remembrances  of  once  happy 
days,  to  see  and  tread  the  familiar  by-ways,  to  look  in 
upon  crumbling  cabins  where  they  or  their  children  were 
born ,  and  to  clasp  the  withering  hands  of  their  fast  de- 
clining "  Marstas  "  and  "Missuses"  once  more  before 
-the  last  call  shall  be  made.  There  is  much  in  such  re- 
unions of  master  and  slave  so  pathetic  as  to  force  tears 
to  the  eyes  of  all  whose  experience  in  the  South  makes 
these  reflections  a  panorama  of  human  feeling  and  shift- 
ing circumstance. 

Absolute  freedom  from  responsibility  gave  to  the  negro 
an  unrestrained  disposition,  that  went  directly  to  joy  with 
the  naturalness  that  an  unmolested  vegetable  goes  to  seed. 
Hard  work  may  induce  inactivity  at  last,  but  certainly 
labor  did  not  act  as  a  restraint  on  the  slaves  ;  they  were 
always  full  of  frolic,  and,  like  a  boiler  carrying  too  much 
steam,  it  had  to  be  worked  off.  In  considering  slave- 
life  we  cannot  avoid  the  mental  query  :  What  would  have 
been  the  negroes'  condition  without  the  banjo,  fiddle,  jubcr 
song  and  light  hearts?  Deprived  of  these  they  would 
never  have  obtained  their  freedom,  because  they  could 
never  have  excited  sympathy  ;  but  with  such  instruments 
and  agencies  of  infectious  delight  they  won  the  plaudits 
as  well  as  the  commiserations  of  the  world. 


558  MYSTERIES    AND   MISERIES. 

Negroes  appeared  to  be  chronically  affected  by  two 
things  particularly,  viz.  :  love's  malady  and  an  enthusias- 
tic desire  for  sport,  while  in  a  majority  of  cases  the  two 
impulses  became  confluent  and  broke  out  in  peculiarities 
that  have  impressed  the  whole  race  with  a  spirit  not  to  be 
found  among  any  other  people. 

In  all  his  domestic  relations  the  negro  seemed  to  per- 
ceive nothing  but  sunshine  ;  he  was  immeasurably  happy 
in  his  courtship,  so  well  described  in  the  old  songs  that 
will  never  be  forgotten ;  in  marriage,  if  his  partner 
had  too  many  blemishes,  polygamy  remained  open  to  him 
like  a  policy-shop  lottery,  while  polyandry  was  an  equally 
felicitious  custom  that  many  negro  women  appreciated. 
Every  cabin  was  resonant  with  song  and  music,  for  all, 
from  the  little  darkey  with  hair  not  yet  grown  long 
enough  to  tie  up  in  cotton  strings,  to  the  old  man  whose 
heels  were  fairly  worn  out  by  years  of  double-shuffling, 
were  qualified,  by  an  apparent  inheritance,  to  render  a 
melody  by  voice  or  finger. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  fiddle — violin  is  a  term  aU 
most  unknown  in  the  South — was  an  instrument  that 
comparatively  few  young  negroes  played  upon,  as  it  was 
considered  best  suited  to  old  darkies  whose  fingers  had 
become  too  stiff  for  banjo  performers.  This  elder  class 
of  musicians  harvested  well  by  reason  of  this  popular  con- 
sideration, for  they  were  in  almost  constant  demand  at 
parties  given  by  both  white  and  colored  "  folks."  The 
aged  darkey,  whose  sun  of  life  was  far  down  the  western 
empyrean,  whose  voice  was  husky,  and  with  joints  too 
stiff  to  longer  gratify  his  feet,  became  an  object  of  tender 
pity,  and  his  cares  were  ministered  to  with  a  devotion 
that  so  well  became  a  sympathetic  people.  But  even  de- 
crepitude could  not  bind  the  joy  that  was  ever  a  well- 
spring  in  negro-slave  nature,  for  the  last  hours  of  failing 


NEW   ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  559 

existence  were  made  cheerful  by  the  fiddle,  to  the  tunes 
of  which  many  an  old  darkey  has  dropped  off  into  the 
blessed  sleep  that  gives  such  perfect  rest. 


THE  OLD  DARKEY'S  LAST  LOVE. 

As  negroes  are  distinguished  for  good  humor  and 
a  keen  appreciation  of  the  ridiculous,  so  are  they  dis- 
ciples of  gastronomy,  and  the  best  cooks-  on  earth,  these 
two  characteristics  being  conjunctive,  in  that  epicures  are 


560  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

invariably  good  natured  and  have  sound  livers.  Those 
who  have  never  dined  off  'possum  and  sweet-potatoes, 
prepared  by  a  colored  cook,  are  not  qualified  to  express 
an  opinion  of  delicious  eatables.  This  dish  is  the  sum- 
mum  bonum  of  culinary  art,  and,  as  it  is  a  negro  creation, 
to  the  race  must  be  awarded  the  chief  credit  that  a  well- 
satisfied  stomach  can  bestow. 

Opossum  and  coon  hunting  comes  next  to  dancing  as 
an  amusement  among,  the  colored  people,  and  in  slavery 
days  nothing  was  more  popular.  Even  the  patrols, 
which  was  a  system  of  repression  and  espionage  estab- 
lished first  in  Virginia,  to  prevent  outbreaks  among  the 
negroes,  was  powerless  to  restrain  darkies  from  pursuing 
their  favorite  game,  and  the  inclination  has  been  but  lit- 
tle disturbed  since  their  freedom.  This  strong  attach- 
ment to  a  sport  which  at  once  furnished  the  most  delight- 
ful amusement  and  a  repast  worthy  of  royalty,  has  been 
celebrated  in  many  excellent  songs,  and  will  ever  be  a  fa- 
vorite subject  for  description  by  vernacular  humorists. 

On  a  visit  to  North  Carolina  several  years  ago,  I  had 
occasion  to  pass  through  a  long  stretch  of  pineries  where 
there  were  but  few  houses,  all  of  which  were  occupied  by 
negroes.  As  night  was  about  to  overtake  me,  I  alighted 
from  my  horse  before  an  unpretentious  cabin  which  gave 
shelter  to  an  old  darkey  and  his  family,  consisting  of  a 
wife  and  two  half -grown  boys,  and  craved  his  hospitality. 
I  was  not  surprised  to  receive  a  hearty  welcome,  espe- 
cially as  my  offer  of  two  dollars  in  silver  I  knew  was  an 
unusually  liberal  one .  My  horse  was  first  attended  to ,  after 
which  I  was  invited  to  supper,  which  was  nearly  ready 
when  I  bespoke  accommodations.  My  delight  was  inex- 
pressible when  I  found  that  the  rude  table  was  orna- 
mented by  what  I  supposed  was  a  richly  baked  'possum, 
but  the  first  bite  taken  showed  how  clever  was  my  decep- 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  561 

tion.  Instead  of  an  opossum,  one  of  the  most  deli- 
cious dishes  ever  prepared,  it  proved  to  be  a  baked  coon, 
something  that  never  struck  me  as  being  palatable ; 
but  being  very  hungry,  I  tried  to  deceive  myself,  and 
really  made  a  very  hearty  repast,  and  thought  it  decid- 
edly good, too. 

After  supper  was  over,  the  old  man  lit  his  pipe,  filled 
with  natural  leaf  tobacco,  and  became  very  loquacious, 
telling  me  about  everything  he  knew  or  suspicioned.  I 
noticed  that  one  of  the  boys  was  slightly  lame,  as  if  he 
had  recently  received  some  painful  injury,  and  having 
nothing  more  interesting  to  say,  I  enquired  the  cause  of 
his  disability.  The  old  man  at  once  began  laughing  im- 
moderately, as  if  tickled  under  the  short  ribs  by  some 
most  laughable  circumstance ;  so  great  was  his  humor, 
that  it  was  some  time  before  he  could  restrain  himself 
sufficiently  to  tell  me  how  his  son  became  injured.  The 
boy  was  too  backward  to  tell  his  own  story,  but  sat  be- 
side the  4'  chimbley  place  "  with  a  wretched  grin  on  his 
countenance.  The  old  darkey,  at  length,  between  fits  of 
laughter,  told  me  the  particulars  of  the  accident  in  the 
following  language : 

"  Dat's  de  bigges'  fool  niggah  in  de  'hole  worl'  ;  .he 
haint  got  'nuff  sense  to  cotch  a  coon,  but  he  moughty 
good  han'  to  eat  'em.  D at?  boy,  he  name  Sam  (point- 
ing to  the  injured  one),  an'  'tother  one  am  Dick.  Night 
afore  las'  me  an'  de  two  boys  an'  de  dogs  gwine  out  to 
cotch  a  coon,  'case  meat  moughty  skase  in  dis  Ian'. 
Well,  aftah  we  gwine  'bout  ha'f  mile,  de  dogs  dey  com- 
mence a  singin'  on  de  trail,  an'  d'rec'ly  ole  Tige  he 
holler  bough— bough— bough,  an'  I  know  dey  got  mis- 
tah  coon  on  a  tree.  Wen  we  com'  to  de  place,  dar, 
shuah  'nuff,  war  de  coon  up  a  elm  tree,  humpin'  ob  he 
back  an'  lookin'  down  on  de  dogs  like  as  ef  he  war  a 
36 


562  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

puttin'  his  fingah  on  his  nose  an'  a  sayin' ,  «  go  hunt  de 
debbil  wid  fiah  an'  yo'  pooty  shuah  to  lose  him.'  Elm 
trees  is  moughty  skase  in  dis  section  an'  de  law  is  agin' 
cuttin'  'em  down,  so  dat,  as  dar  war  no  gun  in  de  crowd, 
what  we  gwine  fo'  to  do  but  clim'  up  in  de  tree  an  shake 
him  out.  Sam  war  a  moughty  nimble  niggah,  an'  I  sen' 
him  up  to  talk  to  mistah  coon,  so  he  clim',  an'  clim'  till 
he  reach  de  lim'  whar  de  varmint  war ;  den  he  crawl 
'long  de  lim'  while  mistah  coon  was  a  backin'  off  slow 
kindah,  like  he  wanted  to  git  a  good  start  fo'  de  fight 
dat  he  war  'spectin'.  Sam,  he  kep'  crawlin'  'long 
t' wards  de  coon,  an'  de  coon  he  kep'  a  backin',  but  w'en 
de  space  war  gittin'  skase,  so  dat  de  coon  he  know  som- 
phin  war  a  comin'  to  a  pint,  yo'  arter  seed  him  change 
his  brissle  an'  start  kindah  slow,  f us ',  t' wards  de  boy. 
Sam,  he  git  skeered  an'  holler  down : 

"  '  Dad !  dad !  it's  a  bar,  kase  I  see  him  a  swellin', 
an'  he  got  claws  on  him  like  de  debbil' s  toastin'  fawk.' 

"Well,  I  git  out'n  patience  wid  dat  boyr  an'  I  tole 
him  :  *  Git  dat  coon,  yo'  tallo'-faced  niggah,  or  I'll  wah' 
yo'  shirt-tail  off  wid  de  eel-skin  crackah.'  Sam  war 
moughty  feerd  ob  de  eel-skin  gad  what  I  keeps  hangin' 
up  dar  'hind  de  doah,  so  he  starts  fo'  dat  coon  ag'in  ;  but 
de  coon  he  got  his  fightin'  suit  on  now  an'  lick  out  his 
tongue  like  a  'gator  eatin'  fresh  dog ;  den  Sam  he  holler 
down  ag'in  : 

"  *Oh,  dad,  dad,  hits  wuss'n  a  bar,  'case  he's  spittin' 
fiah  an'  rubbin'  pisen  on  his  hands  ;  good  Lawd,  he's  a 
comin',  an'  dis  niggah  gwine  to  be  fish-bait  shuah." 

44  Jist  den  I  seed  de  coon  makin'  de  bawk  fly  tryin'  to 
reach  de  boy,  but  Sam  he  haint  gwine  to  meet  de  debbil 
on  his  own  groun',  so  he  say,  an'  lettin'  all  holts  go, 
down  come  de  boy,  gowhollop  !  on  de  groun',  an'  dar's 
how  he  got  his  leg  in  a  sling.  But  de  ole  man  wasn't 


NEW  ORLEANS — NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      563 

gwine  to  lose  dat  coon,  so  I  clim'  de  tree  myself  wid  a 
stick,  an' — well,  how  did  yo'  like  de  way  de  ole  woman 
cook  him  ? ' ' 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

POLITICAL  DIFFICULTIES  GROWING  OUT  OF  NEGRO 
EMANCIPATION. 

THE  grim  accidents  of  war  are  always  marked  by  won- 
derful phases,  but  few  such  effects  following  international 
hostilities  are  so  remarkable  as  those  produced  by  our 
fraternal  strife,  the  recollections  of  which  bring  sorrow 
to  nearly  every  home,  whether  in  the  North  or  the  South  : 
some  burning  pang  for  loss  of  friends,  relatives  and  prop- 
erty. Slavery  being  the  issue  of  that  most  deplorable 
contest,  upon  its  subjects  now  rests  the  bloody  impress 
of  our  civil  war.  No  other  country  was  ever  similarly 
conditioned,  and,  as  a  consequence,  no  other  nation  ever 
passed  through  ci rcumstances  that  prod uced^  such  changes 
in  its  political  civilization. 

For  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  negro  slavery 
was  an  institution  in  a  majority  of  the  States ;  never  a 
passive,  incongruous  agency,  subject  to  political  incon- 
stancy, but  the  strongest  fabric,  the  very  web,  woof  and 
factor  of  Southern  reliance  and  prosperity.  These  slaves 
were  the  motive  power  in  the  machinery  that  impelled  the 
civil  and  mechanical  forces  of  the  South ;  they  became 
equally  essential  with  the  beasts  of  burden  and  field  appli- 
ances, so  that  there  was  an  inter-dependence  between  mas- 
ters and  slaves  that  destroyed,  or  repressed,  every  seuti- 


564  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

ment  bringing  into  question  the  right  of  one  man  to  enslave 
another.  Besides  this,  there  was  Biblical  precedent  that 
was  accepted  as  an  ordinance  of  justice,  even  righteous- 
ness, for  thousands  of  conscientious  slave-owners  really 
believed  that  negroes  were  like  domesticated  animals, 
unable  to  find  their  own  subsistence  through  all  seasons. 

The  first  detonations  heard  about  Ft.  Sumter  produced 
a  noticeable  change  among  Southern  slaves ;  they  re- 
garded themselves  at  once  with  a  feeling  never  before  in- 
spired even  by  the  songs  of  Longfellow,  Whittier,  or  the 
fierce  orations  of  that  long  line  of  Northern  emancipa- 
tionists beginning  with  William  Lloyd  Garrison  ;  every 
bondsman  seemed  immediately  to  perceive  that  he  was  an 
important  adjunct  of  civilization ;  a  cog  in  the  great 
wheel  that  moves  humanity ;  a  form  not  made  in  God's 
image  for  depraved  purposes  ;  the  restraining  burden^ 
born  silently  for  more  than  two  centuries  began  to  shift 
and  slip  from  his  shoulders,  and  for  the  first  time  the  full 
realization  of  manhood  burst  upon  his  half -dazed  senses. 

It  would  be  out  of  place  in  this  work  to  discuss  further 
the  issues  that  were  most  prominent  during  this  distress- 
ful period  of  our  republic,  for  every  such  discussion  is 
liable  to  bring  upon  the  writer  a  charge  of  prejudice,  re- 
gardless of  his  sincerity  or  reasonable  adjudgment ;  let  it 
suffice,  therefore,  to  present  some  of  the  changes  that 
have  been  wrought  in  negro  life  by  their  manumission. 

The  release,  from  regularly  apportioned  occupation,  of 
four  millions  of  colored  people,  very  naturally-produced  a 
serious  disturbance  in  Southern  life,  both  domestic  and 
political.  The  whites  were  scarcely  less  inconvenienced 
by  »  subduction  of  their  slave-laborers  than  were  the 
emancipated  during  the  first  few  years  following  that 
event.  Educated  for  generations  to  rely  wholly  upon  the 
pro  visionary  care  of  their  masters,  when  thrown  upon 


NEW   ORLEANS NEGRO   SUPERSTITIONS.  565 

their  own  resources  they  were  compelled  to  encounter  the 
adversities  that  assail  ignorance  and  dependency ;  their 
condition  was,  in  every  respect,  deplorably  disadvanta- 
geous, being  entirely  destitute  of  lands,  mechanical  appli- 
ances, the  knowledge  of  management,  education,  money, 
or  government  assistance,  and  with  all  the  barriers  of 
race-prejudice  too  high  for  them  to  scale  in  any  section 
of  the  nation. 

It  is  only  natural,  therefore,  that  for  a  long  period 
they  drifted  about  like  a  bubble  on  the  ocean,  with  no- 
where to  turn  their  faces  except  toward  the  plantations 
they  once  cultivated  under  the  discipline  of  masters,  or 
emigrate  to  other  sections  where  at  most  their  efforts 
could  only  be  experimental. 

In  consequence  of  these  several  causes,  New  Orleans 
became  a  rendezvous  which  for  years  fairly  thronged 
with  idle  negroes — anxious  enough  to  work,  but  so  nu- 
merous that  labor  could  not  be  supplied  for  all.  But  in 
these  vicissitudes,  which  sorely  tried  their  cohesion  as  a 
race,  they  never  lost  the  sympathy  and  attachment  which 
was  ever  a  prominent  characteristic  of  their  slave-life. 
Those  who  were  so  fortunate  as  to  obtain  remunerative 
employment,  with  unexampled  self-denial,  generously 
shared  with  those  less  fortunate,  so  that  there  existed  a 
community  of  interest  among  them,  sustained  entirely  by 
a  commendable  and  lofty  concern  for  each  other. 

A  new  world  had  practically  bqrst  upon  the  vision  of 
these  manumitted  slaves,  and  much  time,  with  experience, 
was  required  to  accustom  them  to  a  life  of  freedom. 
They  became  the  butt  of  ridicule,  and  victims  to  thou- 
sands of  inconsiderate  wags  and  cheating  frauds  who 
harassed  levee  crowds  of  New  Orleans  negroes  by  delu- 
sions at  once  humorous  and  profitable  to  the  perpetrator. 

By  the   adoption   of  the   Civil  Rights  Bill,    (March, 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


18GG),  and  article  fifteen  of  the  Constitutional  Amend- 
ments, negroes  were  relieved  of  many  disadvantages,  not 
directly  because  of  their  admission  to  all  the  privileges 
of  citizenship  in  the  mere  exercise  of  the  suffrage  pre- 


rogative, but,  indirectly,  by  reason  of  their  importance, 
in  a  purely  political  sense,  as  voters. 

The  blessing  as  well  as  the  curse  of  our   country  has 
been  the  ballot-box,  as  has  been  already  explained  in  a 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  5G7 

chapter  on  Washington  City.  This  assertion  is  further 
illustrated  in  the  results  following  a  colored  suffrage  in 
the  South,  as  I  shall  try  to  show  without  exhibiting 
either  race  or  sectional  prejudice,  or  laying  myself  liable 
to  a  charge  of  possessing  a  factious  spirit.  It  is  not  that 
the  act  conferring  citizenship  upon  the  negro  was  an  im- 
politic measure  (when  regarded  as  a  principle  of  justice) 
that  evils  followed,  but  purely  because  these  new  voters 
were  seized  upon  by  corrupt  politicians  and  made  instru- 
ments to  subvert  the  best  interests  of  the  nation.  This 
was  accomplished  through  a  system  of  intimidation  and 
open  bribery,  that  for  a  long  period  did  the  South  an  in- 
jury scarcely  less  serious  than  the  civil  war,  and  also  en- 
gendered a  feeling  of  alienation  between  the  North  and 
South  which  kept  open  the  wounds  that  would  have 
readily  healed  but  for  this  aggravating  cause.  No  one 
who  has  given  even  a  small  consideration  to  this  subject, 
will  take  issue  upon  the  fact,  or  disagree  in  opinion  con- 
cerning the  primary  cause  of  Southern  disturbances  fol- 
lowing the  war,  as  here  stated. 

Keeping  constantly  in  view  the  peculiar  condition  and 
position  of  the  colored  people,  let  us  for  a  moment  fol- 
low logical  consequences  to  ascertain  ultimate  results. 
Unable  to  read,  and  with  intellects  dwarfed  through  gener- 
ations of  subjection,  the  negroes  were  not  qualified  to  form 
iconclusions  by  a  process  of  reasoning ;  they,  of  course, 
accepted  the  general  fact  that  the  Republican  party  se- 
cured them  their  freedom,  and  they,  therefore,  regarded 
that  party  with  feelings  of  pride  and  obligation.  Had 
this  impulse  remained  with  the  negroes  there  would 
never  have  succeeded  the  riots,  vendettas,  and  political 
demoralization  that  jeopardized  every  Southern  interest 
until  the  pacificatory  measures  of  1876-77  obtained. 

An  opinion  that  proceeds  from  intuition  rather  than 


568 


MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


reasoning,  is  easily  destroyed  when  it  comes  in  contact 
with  a  superior  intelligence  that  knows  how  to  employ 


ARGUING  A   QUESTION  OF  POLITICS. 


specious  pretences,  and  it  was  the  operation  of  this  very 
fact  that  wrested  from  the  negro  his  palladium  and  ex- 


NEW  ORLEANS — NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      569 

posed  him  to  the  shifting  influences  and  ulterior  de- 
signs of  corrupt  knaves  who  bartered  character  for  polit- 
ical honors.  These  official  aspirants,  in  whose  veins  ran 
the  blood  of  vampyres,  comprehended  Eepublicans  and 
Democrats  alike  ;  men  who  were  partisans  from  promises 
of  preferment  rather  than  principle,  and  so  the  negro  be- 
came a  shuttle-cock  that  was  mercilessly  knocked  by 
both  sides,  and  driven  to  practice  his  suffrage  by  the 
stronger  party.  He  was,  in  every  respect,  like  a  bone 
over  which  two  fierce  dogs  fight  for  possession,  and  after 
the  lapse  of  some  years  even  the  most  profoundly  ignor- 
ant darkey  learned  this  fact. 

Louisiana,  more  than  any  other  State,  suffered  the  full 
effects  of  this  great  political  evil,  and  she  has  not  yet 
quite  recovered  from  its  blighting  consequence.  .  Negroes, 
of  the  more  intelligent  class,  were  openly  traded  for,  and 
put  into  service  by  promises  of  positions  or  other  stipu- 
lated stipends,  to  influence  the  votes  of  their  less  cultivated 
people.  There  was  presented,  therefore,  the  spectacle  of 
colored  men  working  all  their  available  resources  of  cun- 
ning and  duplicity  in  the  interests  of  both  political  par- 
ties in  the  South.  Intimidations  became  frequent ;  first 
by  exaggerated  representations  of  calamities  which  would 
follow  the  accession  to  power  of  a  particular  party  ;  and 
from  these  stories,  intended  merely  to  frighten  ignorant  ne- 
groes, when  they  lost  their  effect,  more  unscrupulous 
politicians  incited  their  base  followers  to  acts  of  minor 
violence.  Thus,  from  corrupt,  though  harmless  influ- 
ences, the  application  grew  stronger,  from  time  to  time, 
until  it  culminated  in  ku-kluxism  and  assassination,  and 
this  disorganization  of  society  brought  carpet-bagism, 
which  was  only  one  degree  less  intolerant  and  abusive 
than  the  malady  it  was  ostensibly  intended  to  repress. 
Negroes  feecame  the  reliance  of  both  parties  alike,  whose 


570  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

ignorance  and  cupidity  made  them  susceptible  to  the 
blandishments  of  either  party,  and  by  employing  artifices 
of  the  most  atrocious  character  the  infamous  procurers 
set  negro  against  negro,  and  posted  them  in  the  highway 
to  shoot  down  each  other,  as  also  to  assassinate  white 
men  who  were  esteemed  political  adversaries.  This  reign 
of  terror  was  increased  by  arousing  the  vengeance  of 
whites  and  blacks  alike,  until  all  the  horrors  of  an  inter- 
race  vendetta  fell  like  a  Nemesis  upon  Southern  people. 
It  caused  a  renewal  of  animosities,  inflamed  the  public 
mind,  and  subjected  the  South  to  prejudices  more  diffi- 
cult of  eradication  than  those  excited  by  our  civil  war. 
The  entire  section  seemed  burdened  with  a  curse ;  men 
again  became  refugees,  emigration  thither  ceased,  planta- 
tions were  left  uncultivated,  and  over  all  that  fair  domain 
there  lingered  the  mould  of  dissolution,  the  ravages  of  a 
wild,  delirious  anarchy. 

In  a  country  where  freedom  climbs  the  rugged  sum- 
mits of  adversity  to  flaunt  her  banner  in  the  very  eye  of 
heaven,  and  proclaims  the  brotherhood  of  states  and  the 
equality  of  man,  national  or  sectional  disorder  cannot  ob- 
tain a  permanent  foothold.  It  acts  like  a  genial  sun  upon 
the  frozen  fetters  that  bind  nature,  releasing  and  fructi- 
fying every  portion  with  a  generous,  soul-imparting  life. 
Such  is  America,  the  recuperative  powers  of  which  are 
phenomenal,  and  strike  every  subject  with  a  spirit  of  pa- 
triotism that  knows  no  section. 

Years  of  freedom  and  budding  opportunities  gradually 
eliminated  the  weaknesses  of  negro  nature,  and  served  to 
educate  him  in  independence ;  with  education  he  began 
to  reach  conclusions  through  deductive  processes  ;  he 
comprehended  his  position  and  deprecated  the  part  he 
had  been  decoyed  and  deluded  into  playing.  With  this 
change  among  those  so  seriously  interested  in  the  political 


NEW    ORLEANS — NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  571 

complications  which  afflicted  every  Southern  State,  Loui- 
siana particularly,  there  came  a  reactionary  sentiment  in 
the  North,  and  this  led  to  the  adoption  of  reformatory 
measures — or  rather,  a  common-sense  application  of  well 
known  remedies  to  a  disease  that  had  at  last  been  prop- 
erly diagnosed.  The  military  and  political  censors  were 
withdrawn ;  several  officials  were  decapitated  and  soon 
afterward  found  it  convenient  to  abscond  ;  fraud  was 
duly  punished,  and  every  man,  white  or  black,  became 
amenable  to  the  law,  which  protected  him  in  the  right, 
and  visited  him  with  vengeance  for  every  wrong.  The 
changes  which  this  wise  policy  produced  were  so  immedi- 
ately corrective  that  the  South  almost  instantly  leaped 
out  of  anarchy  into  a  repose  that  was  marvellous. 
Every  cloud  of  threatening  aspect  was  dissipated  by  a  sun 
that  flooded  the  Southern  States  with  promise  of  return- 
ing fruitfulness  and  prosperity.  Peace  had  her  victories, 
the  brotherhood  of  sections  was  renewed,  and  at  last  that 
dreadful  "bloody  chasm"  was  bridged  by  national  fel- 
lowship, and  the  ties  of  commerce  have  been  binding  North 
and  South  stronger  together  every  day  since,  until  at  last 
we  are  all  brothers  indeed,  and  sectional  prejudice, 
through  the  blessings  of  God,  have  been  banished,  let  us 
hope,  forever. 


572  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

NEGROES    AS     POLITICIANS      AND      AGRICULTURISTS THEIR 

STRENGTH  AND  THEIR  WEAKNESSES. 

SINCE  the  return  of  peace  and  prosperity  to  the  South 
there  has  been  a  rapid  upbuilding  and  wise  utilization  of 
her  resources.  Periods  of  depression  in  business  have 
visited  all  sections,  but  as  the  negroes  are  pre-eminently 
mercurial  and  easily  influenced,  on  account  of  hard  times 
they  have  made  two  well-organized  and  general  exoduses 
from  several  Southern  States,  once  to  Kansas,  and  again 
to  Arkansas,  with  an  expectation  (based  entirely  on  the 
representations  of  railroad  land  agents)  of  bettering 
their  condition,  but  in  each  instance  they  met  with  serious 
disappointment ;  hundreds  died  of  exposure  and  starva- 
tion, while  those  that  escaped  such  ill-fortune  were  glad 
to  return  South.  Thousands  of  these  deluded  emigrants 
were  constrained  to  write  back  home  of  their  sufferings, 
and  when  it  was  ascertained  that  they  were  really  anxious 
to  return,  the  Southern  planters  promptly  sent  forward 
money  to  assist  them,  so  that  very  few  of  these  negroes 
now  remain  in  either  State  ;  those  who  are  still  in  Kansas 
have  met  with  indifferent  success  ;  in  fact,  have  scarcely 
been  able  to  live,  for  the  reason  that  their  nature 
craves  a  warmer  climate,  and  there  only  can  they  hope  to 
prosper,  at  least  for  years  yet  to  come. 

The  freedom,  good  will,  and  just  laws  which  now  pre- 
vail in  the  South,  have  given  the  colored  people  a  latitude 
in  their  political  as  well  as  domestic  concerns  that  affords 
them  ev3ry  opportunity  for  advancement,  which  they  as- 
siduously cultivate. 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO   SUPERSTITIONS.  573 

Political  campaigns  and  elections  in  Louisiana  are  now 
conducted  with  the  same  order  and  acquiescence  that  will 
be  found  to  prevail  in  the  North,  and  negroes  are  no 
longer  excluded  from  the  ranks  of  partisans  because  of 
their  color.  Indeed,  it  is  a  common  sight  to  see  an  as- 


GOING  TO  THE  POLLS. 

semblage  of  white  men  addressed  by  a  colored  orator, 
expounding  political  doctrines  with  the  fire  and  force  of 
volcanic  statesmanship.  The  negroes  have  also  adapted 
themselves  to  prevailing  circumstances  and  take  great  in- 


574  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

terest  in  elections,  both  in  voting  and  electioneering. 
Many  amusing  sights  may  be  witnessed  among  colored 
voters  during  political  campaigns,  upon  which  occasions 
they  exhibit  the  fustian  that  has  become  a  feature  of  the 
race ;  they  also  delight  in  military  displays,  and  often 
maintain  a  martial  appearance  individually,  without  even 
a  pretense  of  organization  ;  the  negro  who  can  muster  in 
the  remnants  of  soldier  uniform,  and  carry  a  musket, 
generally  incurs  the  envy  of  those  destitute  of  such  mili- 
tary accessories,  but  ridicule  falls  harmlessly  against  the 
invulnerable  pride  an  army  cap  and  coat  excite. 
Along  dark  lanes  that  have  been  cleft  through  dense 
pine  forests,  cart-loads  of  negroes  may  be  seen  on  elec- 
tion days  driving  shrivelled  up  jackasses  toward  the  va- 
rious voting  places,  and  scattering  tickets  along  their 
route.  Everyone  is  good-natured,  however,  while  be- 
tween songs,  speeches,  and  strong  pulls  at  whiskey  bot- 
tles, the  occasion  is  made  decidedly  merry,  and  some- 
times uproariously  delightful.  Election  day  in  the  South 
now,  instead  of  being  disgraced  by  all  manner  of  vio- 
lence, as  it  once  was,  is  the  next  thing  to  a  barbecue  or  a 
frolic. 

It  must  be  admitted,  that  with  the  short  period  of  op- 
portunities and  advantages  they  possess,  the  colored  peo- 
ple show  great  progress,  and  exceptional  instances  of  re- 
markable talent.  Several  have  been  elected  to  high  po- 
sitions in  the  National  Congress,  and  these  members  have 
conducted  themselves  in  such  a  manner  as  showed  con- 
siderable ability.  Fred.  Douglass,  who  was  once  a  slave, 
is  universally  regarded  as  a  man  possessing  much  genius 
of  statesmanship,  and  United  States  Senator  Bruce,  of 
Mississippi,  is  also  well  qualified  for  the  high  position  he 
has  attained.  Pinchback,  of  Louisiana,  has  developed 
great  talent,  and  he  is  one  of  the  few  political  leaders  of 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  575 

the  South.  I  do  not  consider  character  in  this  allusion 
to  the  advanced  thinkers  and  able  representatives  of  the 
colored  people,  my  reference  being  entirely  to  their  in- 
telligence ;  politics  will  break  down  the  barriers  of  most 
consciences,  and  it  would  be  strange  in  this  fast  day,  if 
negroes,  as  a  race,  should  exhibit  inflexible  integrity  un- 
der all  political  circumstances. 

As  agriculturists  the  negroes  are  not  particularly 
thrifty;  one  reason  for  this  is,  because  their  disposition 
runs  too  much  to  levity  and  impracticableness  ;  there  are 
few  of  the  race  that  would  not  abandon  an  urgent  duty 
to  participate  in  a  horse-race,  attend  a  barbecue,  or  lay 
off  for  two  weeks  to  help  run  a  camp-meeting.  It  is  not 
because  they  are  lazy,  for  their  labor  education  has  been 
too  thorough,  under  forced  discipline,  for  slothfulness  to 
obtain,  but  solely  because  of  that  idiosyncrasy  of  their 
nature,  a  craving  for  amusement.  During  the  years  of 
bondage,  slaves  were  worked  in  squads,  which  permitted 
an  indulgence  in  song  and  story  that  became  the  spice 
and  incentive  of  their  tasks,  which,  to  a  large  extent,  re- 
lieved the  burdens  of  labor.  This  peculiarity  would 
serve  to  make  negroes  more  prosperous  if  they  could 
join  their  interests  into  a  community  and  work  together. 

The  railroads  that  are  now  in  operation  and  being  con- 
structed in  every  direction  through  the  South,  have  given 
negroes  an  opportunity  to  gratify  their  almost  unreason- 
able love  for  gregarious  amusements.  A  visitor  to  any 
of  these  railroad  sections  will  be  readily  convinced  of  the 
truth  here  asserted.  To  obtain  employment  in  building 
roads,  negroes  will  quit  cotton  or  sugar-cane  fields,  or  any 
other  occupation,  regardless  of  the  profit  it  may  be  yield- 
ing, and  this  inconsiderate  desire  has  many  times  resulted 
in  serious  injury  to  plantation  owners,  who  have  been  left 
with  crops  ready  to  harvest  and  no  laborers  to  be  had  tit 
any  price. 


576 


MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 


Another  drawback  to  negro  prosperity  is  improvidence 
through  mismanagement.  In  the  pinery  sections  of  the 
Southern  States  pine  rails  are  used  almost  exclusively 
for  fencing  ;  not  because  the  harder  woods  are  not  readily 
obtained,  but  purely  and  simply  because  pine  timber 
splits  easiest.  This  shiftless,  reckless  manner  of  trying 
to  farm  is  characteristic  of  negro  life  ;  they  will  always 
take  their  pie  first,  and  then  hold  it  down  with  'possum 
and  hominy. 


AN   ATTACK   OF   THE   "  STOPS." 

Every  horse,  jack,  mule  or  ox  in  the  South,  that  has 
once  been  the  property  of  a  darkey,  is  afflicted  with  the 
"  stops,"  a  singular  disease,  that  has  been  communicated 
by  its  colored  owner,  who  was  never  known  to  take  any- 
thing with  the  hope  of  curing  himself  of  the  affliction. 
In  fact,  darkies  catch  it  as  quick  as  they  are  able  to  ride, 
and  thenceforth  every  animal  they  straddle  soon  becomes 
inoculated  and  remains  incurable,  save  by  the  exercise  of 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  577 

great  patience  and  persistency.  The  disease  may  be  de- 
termined by  noting  the  following  symptoms :  A  darkey 
starts  out  to  mill  upon  an  ass  carrying  a  two-bushel 
grist ;  everything  goes  well  until  another  darkey  is  met 
riding  in  an  opposite  direction ;  as  they  approach  near, 
the  symptoms  begin  to  declare  themselves  ;  there  is  a 
mutual  slacking  of  pace  until  the  full  spasm  of  a  "  stop" 
seizes  the  two  riders  and  their  long-eared  conveyances ; 
there,  in  the  highway,  the  asses  will  doze  with  resigna- 
tion and  comforting  rest,*  while  the  two  darkies  talk 
each  other  blind,  'in  a  spirited  rivalry  to  kill  time. 
When  they  part,  the  probability  of  reaching  mill  that  day 
depends  entirely  on  the  chances  of  meeting  another  fel- 
low that  has  a  case  of  "  stops."  Every  darkey,  through 
all  the  gradations  of  age,  sex  and  condition,  and,  per- 
force, every  carrying  animal,  drops  into  this  habit,  or  dis- 
ease, of  stopping  each  other  to  gossip,  spin  yarns,  tell 
experiences,  discuss  politics,  ask  questions,  make  predic- 
tions, and  declare  events.  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  negro, 
hastening  to  summon  a  doctor  to  care  for  a  case  that 
promised  speedy  death  if  relief  were  long  delayed,  would 
stop  in  his  most  rapid  flight  to  talk  "  plans  and  pussons" 
with  every  darkey  he  might  meet.  It  is  a  habit  that 
runs  through  their  very  marrow-bones,  and  neither  fire 
nor  mercury  can  reach  it.  Those  with  no  acquaintance 
among  Southerners  will  incline  to  the  belief  that  I  have 
exaggerated  a  very  common,  everyday  habit  among  all 
people,  but  for  the  benefit  of  such  as  these  I  say  that 
Southern  negroes  have  evoluted  a  usual  custom  into  an 
all-day  habit,  to  the  serious  injury  of  their  interests,  and 
until  it  has  become  an  evil  that  can  scarcely  be  estimated, 
for  it  amounts  to  little  less  than  an  idle  consumption 
of  more  than  half  of  the  labor  hours.  When  wage- 
hands  are  scarce  this  loss  is  a.  great  one,  while  it  diinin- 
37 


578  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

ishes,  by  one-half,  the  possible  productiveness  of  nearly 
every  farm-patch  cultivated  by  negroes. 

But  with  all  the  adverse  influences,  which  are  in  great 
part  due  to  the  circumscribed  limits  he  was  so  long  com- 
pelled to  occupy,  the  negro  has  done  much  for  himself 
and  been  a  (not  altogether  unmixed)  blessing  to  the 
Southern  people.  The  colored  race  are  as  dissimilar  to 
the  Caucasian  as  the  variety  of  lower  animals  are  in 
adaptation  to  climate  ;  being  descendants  of  a  hot  coun- 
try, they  still  bear  the  sluggish  blood  of  their  earliest  an- 
cestry, and,  therefore,  thrive  best  in  the  South.  They 
are  more  liable  to  lose  hardihood,  and  become  more 
readily  susceptible  to  disease,  consumption  especially,  in 
the  North  than  in  the  South,  while  every  other  consider- 
ation makes  that  section  the  one  best  calculated  for  their 
material  advancement.  Thousands  of  rich  plantations  are 
already  owned  by  negroes,  not  a  few  of  whom  are  com- 
pelled to  employ  white  labor ;  but  there  is  still  a  preju- 
dice against  this  subordination  of  whites  to  blacks  which 
will,  doubtless,  require  several  generations  to  eradicate. 

It  is  a  noticable  fact,  and  one  that  ethnologists  have 
already  remarked,  that  the  colored  race  is  diminishing, 
not  so  rapidly  as  the  Indians,  but  certainly  as  surely  to  be- 
come extinct,  by  amalgamation,  at  no  remote  period. 
There  are  two  reasons  for  this  deterioration,  one  of  which  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  there  is  no  longer  any  correlative 
influence  operating  as  an  incentive  to  rapid  propagation 
as  there  was  during  slavery  days,  when  negroes  were  bred 
for  profit.  The  other  cause  is  found  in  inter-marriage, 
which  is  an  eliminating  source  so  speedy  that  its  surpris- 
ing effects  are  noted  in  the  rapidly  increasing  population 
of  mixed  blood.  Even  in  times  of  slavery  the  law  against 
miscegenation  was  frequently  invoked  and  though  inex- 
orably administered  it  did  not  prevent  alliances  between 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  579 

the  two  races.  When  this  law  was  nullified  by  the  Civil 
Eights  Bill  these  inter-marriages  became  more  frequent, 
and  have  continued  increasing  ever  since,  until  now  the 
union  of  a  white  man  with  a  black  woman,  or  vice  versa 


(which  is  more  rare)  scarcely  excites  any  remark ;  they 
are  consummated,  however,  among  the  lower  classes,  but 
we  may  anticipate  a  more  general  inter-mixture  as  tho 
years  diminish  race  prejudices, 


580  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

The  love  of  bright  colors  is  a  strong  characteristic 
among  negroes,  which  is  in  consonance  with  the  jubilant 
disposition  they  manifest  under  all  conditions  of  life. 
This  peculiarity  has  been  worked  like  a  dividend-paying 
mine  by  tradesmen  and  itinerant  canvassers  in  the  South. 
Flashy  fabrics,  cheap  jewelry,  and  brilliant  chromos  have 
cost  the  negroes  more  money  than  their  homes  and  farm- 
implements  ,  in  fact,  they  are  slaves  to  a  desire  for  cat- 
fish, water-melons,  'possums  and  gay  colors,  and  all  the 
philosophy  of  statesmanship,  advice  of  white  men,  or  the 
verdict  of  adversity  can  never  stifle  a  scintilla  of  that 
blooming  part  of  their  nature.  Chromo  peddlers  have 
taken  more  money  out  of  the  South  than  the  agricultural 
machine  men,  and  the  field  has  not  been  half  worked 
yet  by  the  former. 


CHAPTER  X. 

A  DESCRIPTION  OF  NEW  ORLEANS. 

THERE  are  few  cities  on  the  continent  that  rival  New 
Orleans  in  beauty,  its  streets  being  particularly  hand- 
some, and  many  of  the  radiating  roads  are  paved  with 
shells.  But  to  its  beauty  is  added  not  a  fe\y  singular 
features  that  cannot  be  found  in  any  other  American 
city,  which,  together  with  a  mild  climate,  romantic  sur- 
roundings and  remarkable  history,  makes  it  a  place  of 
great  interest,  while  its  commercial  aspects  are  marvel- 
lously flattering. 

New  Orleans  is  built  with  much  regularity,  except  in 


NEW   ORLEANS NEGRO   SUPERSTITIONS.  581 


SCENE  IN  THE  FRENCH  QUARTERS  OF  NEW  ORLEANS, 


582  MYSTERIES  AND  MISERIES. 

the  older  portion,  which  extends  itself  on  the  convex  side 
of  the  Mississippi  River  into  a  well-defined  crescent,  from 
whence  the  appellation  "Crescent  City"  is  obtained. 
The  old  city  limits,  as  they  existed  under  the  French  and 
Spanish  governments,  are  defined  by  Canal,  Esplanade 
and  Rampart  streets.  These  three,  which  embrace  what 
was  once  the  line  of  the  city's  defensive  works,  are  two 
hundred  feet  in  width,  with  a  sidewalk  and  carriage  drive 
on  each  side.  Through  the  middle  of  each  of  these 
streets  extends  a  green  stretch  like  a  boulevard,  called 
the  Neutral  Ground,  which  is  planted  with  double  rows 
of  trees,  presenting  a  very  beautiful  appearance.  With- 
out the  limits  comprehended  by  these  three  principal 
streets,  the  avenues  are  rather  narrow,  and  the  houses 
compactly  built.  Just  above,  beginning  with  Canal 
street  and  extending  to  Felicity  road,  lies  the  1st  city 
district,  which  was  formerly  the  Faubourg  St.  Mary ; 
while  still  beyond  is  the  4th  district,  prior  to  1852  the 
city  of  LaFayette,  in  which  the  dwellings  are  remarkably 
spacious  and  of  great  elegance,  with  large  grounds  orna- 
mented by  a  profusion  of  shrubbery.  Below  the  old  city 
proper  lies  the  3d  district,  formerly  the  Faubourg  Ma- 
rigny,  which  is  the  residence  section  of  a  large  portion 
of  the  Creole  population. 

New  Orleans  is  built  on  a  wide  level,  and  the  ground  is 
so  spongy  that  none  of  the  houses  have  cellars.  The 
surface  of  the  river,  at  high  water,  is  from  two  to  four 
feet  above  the  city  level,  and  even  at  its  lowest -stages  the 
river  is  above  the  level  of  the  swamps  in  the  rear.  To 
prevent  inundations,  a  levee  from  five  to  thirty  feet  high 
is  maintained  for  one  hundred  miles  along  the  river, 
while  that  immediately  in  front  of  the  city  is  constructed 
by  employing  a  continuous  series  of  wooden  piers,  form- 
ing an  esplanade  several  miles  in  extent,  which  are  made 
to  serve  the  purposes  of  wharves. 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  583 

It  is  not  difficult  to  account  for  the  low  depression  and 
spongy  character  of  the  soil  about  New  Orleans,  after  in- 
vestigating the  formations  about  the  balise.  Within  the 
memory  of  many  river  pilots,  who  have  been  employed 
for  years  on  towboats  to  bring  vessels  from  the  mouth 
of  the  river  to  New  Orleans  (distant  one  hundred  and 
eleven  miles),  land  has  formed,  or  rather  the  river-mouth 
has  been  extended,  for  a  distance  of  six  miles  or  more. 
This  is  caused  by  a  deposition  of  the  alluvial  soil  that  is 
carried  in  solution  by  the  Mississippi  River  current  until 
it  strikes  the  gulf,  when  it  is  deposited  and  forms  a  con- 
stantly lengthening  bar.  It  has  been  declared  by  some 
geologists  that  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  once  washed  the  south- 
ern point  of  Illinois,  and  that  the  river  has  formed,  by 
deposition  of  sediment,  all  those  States  (or  at  least  large 
adjacent  portions)  now  bounded  on  one  side  by  the  Mis- 
sissippi River. 

But  this  statement  is  apparently  apocryphal,  if  not  in- 
deed preposterous.  The  fact  is  not  to  be  doubted,  how- 
ever, that  New  Orleans  occupies  this  made-ground,  for 
the  proofs  are  abundant.  The  soil  is  so  thin  as  to  be  al- 
most mobile,  and  below  a  few  feet  no  foundation  of 
earth  or  strata  exists  ;  it,  therefore,  presents  the  peculi- 
arity of  a  floating  crust  of  land  sustained  by  adhesiveness, 
which  is  the  result  of  vegetable  growth  that,  instead  of 
decomposing,  assimilates  with  the  soil,  giving  to  it  a  tex- 
ture pliant  but  cohesive. 

In  the  construction  of  krge  buildings  in  New  Orleans, 
like  the  Custom  House,  which  was  commenced  in  1848 
and  finished  in  1873,  no  material  for  foundation  is  avail- 
able except  cotton  bales  ;  piles  cannot  be  employed,  be- 
cause, after  penetrating  the  lew  feet  of  earth,  they  strike 
a  bottomless  expanse  of  water  and  disappear. 

Among  the  more  notable  public  buildings  in  New  Or- 


584  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

leans  may  be  mentioned  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Louis,  a 
magnificent  structure  of  Gothic  architecture,  that  was 
erected  in  1850  on  the  site  of  the  original  parish  church, 
fronting  Jackson  Square;  the  St.  Charles  Hotel,  the 
Government  Mint,  Capitol,  and  many  imposing  churches. 

There  are  six  large  public -squares  in  the  city,  the  most 
prominent  of  which  is  Jackson  Square,  which  was  for- 
merly the  Place  d'Armcs,  and  is  coeval  with  the  founda- 
tion of  the  city,  which  dates  back  to  1718,  at  the  incep- 
tion of  John  Law's  Mississippi  Bubble  ;  it  is  handsomely 
ornamented  by  choice  plants  and  flowers,  and  in  the  cen- 
tre is  a  very  large  bronze  equestrian  statue  of  Gen.  Jack- 
son, by  Clark  Mills,  the  sculptor  who  took  a  plaster  cast 
of  Guiteau's  head  during  the  assassin's  trial.  A  very 
large  statue  of  Henry  Clay  was  unveiled  in  the  centre  of 
Canal  street  in  i860,  and  still  stands  as  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous  features  of  that  broad,  magnificent  thorough- 
fare. In  fact,  there  are  few,  if  any,  streets  in  the  North- 
ern cities  that  show  so  advantageously,  in  width,  pave- 
ment and  the  buildings  which  line  it,  as  Canal  street. 

There  are  seventeen  cemeteries  in  New  Orleans,  and 
they  are  all  handsomely  laid  out,  with  beautiful  par- 
terres and  deep,  shading  woods ;  the  usual  mode  of 
sepulture  is  in  vaults  constructed  above  ground,  with 
doors  that  are  sealed  up  when  a  body  is  deposited ,  so  as 
to  prevent  the  exhalations  of  decomposition  vitiating  the 
air.  In  earlier  years,  half  a  century  ago,  dead  bodies 
were  given  burial  in  graves  scarcely  two  feet  deep,  water 
being  reached  even  at  that  depth  ;  after  being  left  for  a 
few  months  in  these  shallow  receptacles,  to  prevent  poi- 
soning the  atmosphere,  the  bodies  were  resurrected  and 
burned,  sometimes  in  heaps.  The  graveyards,  during  the 
prevalence  of  this  practice,  resembled  ossuaries,  the 
ground  being  literally  strewn  with  charred  bones, and  hair 
that  had  fallen  from  the  decomposing  dead. 


NEW  ORLEANS NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      585 

New  Orleans  is  the  grand  emporium  of  all  the 'vast  re- 
gions traversed  by  the  Mississippi  River  and  its  tributary 
streams,  and  enjoys,  in  consequence,  a  greater  command 
of  internal  navigation  than  any  other  city  either  of  the 
Old  or  New  World.  Dense  populations  are  still  to  be 
found  in  comparatively  small  portions  only  of  the  im- 
mense territories  of  which  this  city  is  the.  entrepot ;  and 
yet  her  progress,  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  was 
rapid  almost  beyond  precedent.  The  war,  however, 
proved  in  the  highest  degree  disastrous  to  the  interests  of 
the  city  by  instantly  annihilating  the  cotton  trade,  and 
checking  both  the  commerce  and  industry  of  the  South- 
ern States. 

The  most  memorable  event  in  New  Orleans  history 
was  the  great  battle  fought  there  between  Jackson 
and  Packenham,  of  the  American  and  English  forces, 
January  8th,  1815,  but  an  almost  equally  important  event 
was  the  capture  of  the  city  by  a  flotilla  of  gunboats  under 
Admiral  Farragut,  April  28th,  1862,  which  was  the  first 
great  blow  to  the  Confederate  cause. 

Immediately  following  the  cessation  of  hostilities, 
Louisiana  fell  under  the  rule  of  a  corrupt  horde  that 
drained  her  treasury,  drove  capital  from  the  State  and 
brought  her  to  the  verge  of  insurrection  ;  in  consequence 
of  these  injurious  causes  New  Orleans  was  forced  back- 
ward and  her  importance  paled  rapidly  before  the  blight 
that  afflicted  her  commerce  so  seriously ;  then  the  yellow 
fever  (1868)  came  down  upon  her  in  the  shape  of  a 
frightful  plague  which  destroyed  hope  as  well  as  life, 
making  beggars  as  well  as  victims. 

After  the  decade  of  seventy  spread  its  pinions  through 
the  meridian  of  time,  it  flung  out  some  rays  of  promise 
to  New  Orleans,  and  there  succeeded  the  auroral  streaks 
of  a  day  that  warmed  into  renewed  energy  the  feeble  vi- 


586  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

tality  of  her  people.  A  wiser  policy  of  local  government 
was  obtained,  and  those  who  had  been  driven  into  idleness 
by  the  reaction  following  the  war,  turned  again  to  the 
plantations  that  had  become  fallow,  and  over  all  there 
was  a  new  utilitarian  spirit  brooding  that  restored  the 
prestige  of  that  famous  city  in  a  few  years.  When  her 
dependencies  returned  to  the  plow,  fortune  extended  a  gen- 
erous palm  to  her  commerce,  giving  men  to  see  the  re- 
quirements needful  for  upbuilding  a  trade  that  had  never 
before  been  dreamed  of.  The  wisdom  of  New  Orleans 
citizens,  together  with  the  genius  of  a  great  engineer  and 
the  assistance  of  Congress,  caused  to  be  constructed  a  re- 
markable exhibition  of  engineering  skill  that  has  become 
equal  to  Ben.  Adim's  wish  in  producing  wealth  by  a  sav- 
ing economy — the  jetties.  These  public  works  have 
made  New  Orleans  the  most  eligible  commercial  port  of 
the  world  and  are  pushing  her  into  an  importance  almost 
too  great  for  prospective  estimation.  They  have  resulted 
in  bringing  out  all  the  latent  energies  of  the  West  and 

O        O  O 

South,  and  drawing  to  her  the  rich  harvests,  vast  pro- 
ductiveness, and  capital  that  impel  America ;  from  a 
port  of  the  third  class  New  Orleans  has  leaped  forward 
to  the  front  rank,  and  now  she  is  advancing  in  every  ma- 
terial resource  more  rapidly  than  any  other  city  of  the 
Union.  With  this  impulsive  force  of  circumstances  there 
has  gathered  in  her  wake  a  number  of  national  enterprises 
which  will  add  to  the  city's  aggrandizement.  The 
success  so  signally  attained  by  the  jetties  has  jincited  a 
spirit  of  improvement  that  must  soon  result  in  the  con- 
finement, deepening  and  leveeing  of  the  Mississippi  River 
so  as  to  permit  an  uninterrupted  navigation  by  the  larg- 
est vessels ;  when  this  improvement  shall  be  perfected, 
New  Orleans  must  needs  be  so  inestimably  benefitted  that 
the  prospects  of  her  future  importance  as  a  commercial 
entrepot  can  scarcely  be  computed. 


NEW    ORLEANS — NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  587 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    SOCIAL    LIFE   AND    UNDERCURRENTS  OF  NEW  ORLEANS. 

ALL  large  cities  have  many  features  in  common,  and 
in  these  familiar  characteristics  New  Orleans  can  compete 
for  consideration  ;  she  has  her  share  of  dishonesty,  crime 
and  immorality  generally,  but  in  a  few  respects  there  are 
common  features,  in  this  city,  that  exhibit  peculiarities 
of  degree  hardly  to  be  found  elsewhere.  Her  people 
are  phlegmatic  in  mind  because  of  the  climate,  but  this 
same  atmosphere  has  the  double  influence  of  imparting 
excitement  to  the  nervous  system  while  it  debilitates  the 
venous,  and  thus  it  stimulates  the  passions  to  an  extent 
that  unbalances  nearly  every  function  of  the  body. 
Under  an  invigorating  growth  both  men  and  women,  es- 
pecially the  latter,  attain  to  maturity  much  earlier  than 
in  colder  climates. 

Previous  to  the  war  New  Orleans  was,  in  every  respect, 
a  very  hot-house  of  sensuality,  two  potential  causes  com- 
bining to  make  it  excessively  immoral.  These  were: 
rich  living  in  luxurious  idleness,  and  the  climatic  stimu- 
lus already  mentioned.  Wealth  fairly  established  its 
court  of  sumptuousness  in  that  city,  and  those  whom 
fortune  visited  so  lavishly  had  only  to  temper  their  wills 
and  gratify  disposition,  as  ambition  could  not  grow  in  a 
soil  so  barren  of  incentive.  Beautiful  maidens  were 
wont  to  idle  the  warm  days  by  reclining  in  arm  chairs,  on 
long  porches,  and  have  colored  servants  fan  away  the 
flies  and  hot  air,  so  that  the  fair  brow  might  bask  with 
delight  in  every  comfort  that  a  slave  could  devise  ;  when 
night  came  on  and  the  solar  fires  were  quenched  by  cool- 


588  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

ing  breezes,  lovers  came  out  like  twinkling  stars,  to 
charm  these  beauties  with  serenades,  dances,  grand 
masque  balls,  receptions  en  gala,  or  private  whis- 
perings of  tales  that  sound  so  musical  to  willing  ears. 
There  was  a  slave  to  answer  every  wish,  and  life  became 
a  roundelay  of  pleasure,  nothing  to  think  of  further  than 
a  consideration  of  new  means  to  beguile  the  hours.  As 
a  consequence  of  this  listlessness  there  developed  traits 
of  -character  that  became  leprous  spots,  for  it  plunged 
society  into  indulgences  rank  with  immorality.  Not  that 
by  this  would  I  seek  to  give  the  impression  that  all  New 
Orleans  aristocrats  were  libidinously  inclined,  for  these 
practices  only  obtained  among  a  sufficient  class  of  society 
to'warrant  an  observation  of  a  general  nature.  But  it  is 
true  that  up  to  1860  there  was  more  of  the  social  evil, 
and  that,  too,  among  the  wealthiest  citizens,  in  New  Or- 
leans, than  could  be  found  in  any  other  American  city. 
Nor  is  the  fact  at  all  strange  when  the  several  causes  are 
thoroughly  understood,  for  the  same  results  follow  like 
influences  which  are  found  prevailing  in  all  semi-trop- 
ical cities  of  the  world. 

The  blight  of  war  changed  everything  in  the  South, 
and  nothing  more  radically  than  New  Orleans  society. 
Property  wasted  in  a  night,  as  it  were,  and  servants  no 
longer  acknowledged  masters ;  Southern  belles  were 
forced  by  circumstances  to  leave  brilliant  parlors  and  lis- 
ten to  the  fading  cadences  of  songs  and  stories  that  fled 
with  departing  lovers.  The  matin  horn  no  longer  aroused 
a  horde  of  slaves,  but  became  the  calling  note  for  beau- 
ties to  enter  the  kitchen  and  swains  to  take  up  either  a 
musket  or  a  hoe.  But  this  change  was  one  of  the  greatest 
blessings  that  could  have  befallen  that  section,  for  it 
aroused  giddy  fire-flies  of  fashion  and  ease,  and  stripping 
them  of  emasculating  inertness,  rehabilitated  them  in  the 


NEW   ORLEANS ]NEGUO    SLTJ2KST1TIONS.  589 


A  SOUTHERN  BELLE  AT  A  BAL-MASQUE. 


590  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

noble  raiment  of  manhood  and  womanhood ;  it  brought 
them  out  from  a  sensuous  swirl  that  beclouds  happiness, 
and  set  their  feet  upon  the  shore  of  practical  life,  where 
ambition  grows  without  artificial  fostering,  and  builds 
grand  triumphal  arches  for  processions  of  laborers  and 
lovers  to  pass  under  eternally.  There  at  once  succeeded 
an  interest  in  themselves  never  felt  before,  and  a  sym- 
pathy for  neighbors,  which  was  created  by  this  great 
stroke  of  adversity,  that  forged  a  chain  binding  society 
more  generously,  and  with  a  confidence  that  begat  mor- 
ality. 

New  Orleans  of  to-day  is  far  removed  from  the  sensu- 
ality that  distinguished  her  twenty  years  ago,  yet  like  all 
cities,  aye,  towns  and  hamlets,  she  gives  shelter  to  de- 
praved objects,  and  is  no  exception  to  the  adage  :  "Vice, 
like  talent,  thrives  best  in  large  cities."  In  fact,  with 
the  exception  of  New  York  and  Washington  City,  New 
Orleans  contains  a  larger  population  of  bawds  than  any 
other  American  city,  but  they  can  hardly  be  pronounced 
indigenous,  as  formerly.  There  is  much  in  the  atmos- 
phere to  develop  and  sensualize  women,  and  in  this  cause 
we  have  a  natural  effect  which  may  be  found  in  all  warm 
climates. 

The  French  Market  District  in  New  Orleans  has  a  no- 
toriety that  is  very  extensive,  for  located  on  the  streets 
diverging  therefrom  are  scores  of  low  dives,  patronized 
by  the  Jack  Tars  of  all  nations.  These  places  present 
many  repulsive  features  common  .to  excessively  low  life, 
and  not  infrequently  become  the  scene  of  brutal  mur- 
ders resulting  from  rows  over  the  degraded  wretches  who 
inhabit  the  streets'  vilest  quarters.  Basin  street  is  fairly 
made  up  with  the  palatial  quarters  of  gilt-edged  aristo- 
cratic bawds,  who  reserve  their  favors  for  fortune's  fa- 
vorites only. 


NEW  ORLEANS— NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS. 


501 


592  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

Dauphin  street  is  occupied  by  three  classes  of  citizens, 
the  high,"  the  low,  and  in  the  upper  end  there  are  many 
palatial  residences  of  wealthy  people,  honorable  and 
prominent.  St.  Charles,  Royal  and  Chartres  streets  are 
all  infested  with  bawds,  who  have  succeeded  in  establish- 
ing palaces  of  iniquity  among  a  high-toned  resident  popu- 
lation, for  along  these  streets  may  be  found  fine  buildings 
owned  and  occupied  by  the  best  society  in  New  Orleans. 
Canal  street,  too,  which  is  a  dividing  line  between  the 
French  and  American  populations,  and  a  thoroughfare  of 
exceeding  beauty,  is  also  defaced  by  numerous  houses  of 
prostitution,  chiefly  assignation  places. 

The  Creoles,  who  are  supposed  to  be  a  race  with 
French  and  negro  blood  mixed,  but  in  reality  are  of  va- 
rious lineage,  constitute  the  chief  number  of 'New  Orleans 
bawds.  They  are  generally  of  little  or  no  education, 
and  with  inborn  tastes  for  depravity ;  many  so-called 
Creoles  are  Octoroons  and  even  Quadroons,  while  others 
are  of  French,  Spanish  and  American  admixture.  As  a 
class,  this  mongrel  hodge-podge  of  humanity  are  repul- 
sive in  feature  and  without  grace  of  form,  yet  among 
them  may  be  found  some  of  the  handsomest  women  in 
the  world,  very  Cleopatras  with  nut-brown  and  half- 
transparent  complexions  ;  large,  melting  eyes  that  emit 
flames  of  infectious  passion  ;  lips  tinged  with  carnation, 
like  roses  set  in  beds  of  amber,  and  having  a  configura- 
tion of  limbs  and  body  as  delicate  in  outline  as  ever 
sculptor  genius  created.  These  women  have  been  as  a 
bane  to  Southern  life,  for  they  have  been  the  inciting 
cause  to  many  duels,  and  inspired  illicit  amours  that  have 
disrupted  thousands  of  once  happy  families.  It  may 
with  truth  be  said  that  not  a  few  Creole  females,  favored 
with  extraordinary  beauty,  exercise  a  wonderful  influence 
on  both  the  social  and  political  life  of  the  South,  for  by 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO   SUPERSTITIONS.  593 

their  magical  power  of  seducement,  exerted  on  so  many 
suceptible  aspirants  of  the  Southern  Metropolis,  they 
have,  on  numerous  occasions,  been  able  to  secure  a  strong 
foothold  among  white  aristocrats,  who  bow  low  before  the 
potentiality  of  their  charms. 

Superstition  is  a  ruling  element  with  this  genre,  which 
is  displayed  chiefly  by  fortune-telling,  and  while  the  su- 
perstitious art  is  employed  for  unfolding  the  future  to 
their  own  vision,  they  use  it  also  as  an  enticement  for  the 
best  class  of  white  people,  especially  wealthy  white  men, 
who,  giving  way  to  the  temptation,  fall  ready  prey  to 
hundreds  of  cunning  expedients  designed  for  plucking 
money,  influence  and  affection. 

On  one  occasion,  some  years  ago,  during  a  visit  to  New 
Orleans,  I  rambled  down  into  the  Creole  Quarters  out  of 
curiosity  to  discover  a  handsome  female  of  that  race.  I 
had  heard  so  much  of  the  extravagant  beauty  sometimes 
to  be  met  with  among  the  Creoles,  that  I  decided  to  make 
a  thorough  search  to  determine  the  truthfulness  of  such 
statements. 

It  was  in  April,  when  everything  in  nature  was  putting 
on  fresh  garments  of  emerald  hues,  and  the  air  was  full 
of  delicious  odors  wafted  from  orange  groves  that  lined 
the  opposite  shore ;  twilight  was  just  gathering,  and  all 
the  happy  phases  of  a  delightful  day  in  the  South  com- 
bined to  excite  the  romance  of  my  nature,  until,  in  con- 
templating the  object  of  my  ramble,  I  peopled  the  air 
with  beautiful  maidens  having  midnight  tresses,  laughing 
eyes,  forms  graceful  as  a  swell  of  the  sea,  and  cheeks 
soft  as  the  down  on  a  cygnet.  Upon  reaching  the  out- 
skirts of  Frenchtown,  several  decidedly  unromantic  ob- 
jects stole,  one  by  one,  upon  my  sight,  but  like  Don 
Quixote  in  his  many  adventures,  I  tried  to  give  them  all 
some  coloring  from  my  imagination,  and  thus  got  through 
38 


594  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

to  the  Creole  district  without  losing  the  feeling  that  had 
been  inspired  earlier  in  my  walk.  When,  at  last,  I  strode 
through  several  avenues  begrimed  with  putrifying  filth, 
the  spirit  of  Quixote  left  me  entirely  and  for  more  than 
an  hour  I  saw  so  many  villainously  ugly  men,  women  and 
children,  that  disgust  stifled  romance,  and  I  felt  like 
choking  everybody  that  had  ever  declared  there  was  any 
beauty  among  Creoles.  However,  my  opinion  was  not 
enduring,  for  before  returning  again  to  the  St.  Charles 
Hotel,  my  eyes  fell  upon  an  old  crone  who  was  sitting  on 
the  front  stoop  of  a  dilapidated  frame  shanty,  humming 
an  unmusical,  disjointed  tune.  It  was  now  almost  dark, 
yet  before  I  passed  by  the  faded  grandam,  the  form  of  a 
young  girl  came  into  view  sitting  beside  a  window,  her 
features  being  well  brought  out  by  the  rays  of  a  lamp  that 
sat  on  a  table  near  her.  In  a  moment  I  perceived  that 
she  was  handsome,  and  this  last  chance  of  determining 
an  assertion  that  I  was  really  'anxious  to  confirm, 
prompted  me  to  stop  before  the  tottering  domicile  and 
address  the  aged  woman,  who  I  suspected  was  mother  to 
the  young  lady  inside. 

"  Beg  your  pardon,  madam,  I  am  in  search  of  a  for- 
tune-teller ;  can  you  direct  me  to  one  that  is  reliable  and 
who  lives  hereabouts  ?  "  I  felt  quite  sure  that  she  would 
make  answer  by  disclosing  her  own  qualities  as  a  pro- 
found seer,  and  I  therefore  concluded  this  ruse  would  be 
the  shortest  route  to  the  beautiful  Creole  girl  inside.  I 
was  not  mistaken,  for  she  replied  in  a  dialect  that  cannot 
be  counterfeited  in  type  : 

"  They  call  me  the  best  fortune-teller  in  New  Orleans, 
and  I  can  tell  you  that  there  are  none  so  reliable ;  step 
inside,  please." 

With  alacrity  I  accepted  the  invitation,  and  was  con- 
ducted into  a  low,  dingy  room,  scantily  furnished,  and 


NEW   ORLEANS NEGRO   SUPERSTITIONS.  595 

with  mural  decorations  which  suggested  appropriate  re- 
gard for  ghosts  and  other  spiritual  concomitants  of  a 
necromantic  sorceress — including  a  black  cat  that  came 
purring  about  the  old  woman,  and  a  stuffed  owl  that  sat, 
with  mysterious  visage,  on  the  mantle-board.  But  all 
this  weird  ensemble  only  served  to  increase  my  interest  in 
the  surprisingly  beautiful  young  girl  who  was  engaged  in 
weaving  an  osier  basket  and  scarcely  heeded  my  entrance. 

Upon  taking  a  seat,  I  requested  the  old  woman  to  give 
me  some  information  respecting  her  occult  powers, 
pleading  as  an  excuse  for  making  such  request  my  anx- 
iety to  learn  how  the  strange  gift  of  prophecy  is  bestowed 
or  developed,  accompanying  the  excuse  with  a  dollar  bill, 
which  seemed  to  put  her  in  excellent  humor.  Said  she 
in  effect  : 

"I  cannot  tell  you  how  I  became  favored  with  the 
power  of  forecasting  events,  for  the  spirits  act  in  secret 
and  rarely  disclose  their  motives  to  mortals.  However, 
I  was  the  fourteenth  daughter  of  a  seventh  daughter, 
both  of  whom  were  endowed  with  the  gift  of  prophecy. 
When  about  seven  years  of  age,  I  was  made  conscious  of 
my  spiritual  endowment  by  a  strange  circumstance  which 
I  declare,  upon  oath,  to  be  the  truth :  One  evening,  in 
summer  time,  shortly  after  dark,  my  mother  sent  me 
over  to  a  neighbor's  for  some  milk,  which  we  were  accus- 
tomed to  getting  and  allowing  to  stand  over  night  so 
that  the  cream  might  rise  by  morning  for  use  in  our  cof- 
fee. I  had  proceeded  less  than  half-way  when  suddenly 
a  whirl-wind  seemed  to  strike  me,  by  which  I  was  borne 
rapidly  upward  and  then  across  lake  Ponchartrain  to  the 
swamps  ;  here  I  descended  into  the  very  centre  of  more 
than  a  score  of  dwarfs,  all  of  whom  were  dressed  in  flam- 
ing-red garments,  and  wore  on  their  heads  long,  black 
hoods  that  terminated  in  a  sharp  point  from  which  burned 


596  MYSTERIES  AND   MISERIES. 

a  small  blue  blaze  that  reflected  an  uncanny  light  over  the 
swamp.  It  is  needless  to  tell  you  that  I  was  frightened  ; 
indeed,  I  was  at  first  rendered  almost  unconscious  by  the 
fear  that  possessed  me.  But  the  bogises  spoke  kindly, 
and  arranging  themselves  in  a  circle,  began  dancing 
around  me  and  singing  such  a  wild  song,  that  neither  in 
words  nor  sound  resembled  anything  that  ever  before  had 
fallen  on  mortal  ears.  A  fire  blazed  up  around  me  as 
the  bogises  danced,  and  I  soon  found  myself  raised  up  by 
the  force  of  the  flames  until  I  rested  upon  their  flapping 
tongues ;  still,  I  did  not  feel  any  heat,  but  found  my 
seat  a  very  comfortable  one.  After  several  minutes  were 
spent  in  this  mysterious  ceremony,  the  dwarfs  broke  their 
circle ;  the  fire  went  out  suddenly,  and  then  the  scene 
began  to  fade  until  only  faint,  phantom  forms  could  be 
discerned,  and  these  gathered  around  and  upon  me,  while 
one,  who  acted  as  chief,  addressed  me  in  a  sepulchral 
voice  something  as  follows  : 

"  *  Daughter  of  mortal — conceived  under  the  influence 
of  an  astrologer  who  is  commissioned  from  the  court  of 

<r> 

a  power  that  seals  past,  present  and  future  events  to- 
gether ;  daughter  of  mortal — the  issue  of  sevens  ;  a  four- 
teenth unto  seven,  so  shall  your  power  be  double  that  of 
a  seventh  unto  seven.  Through  you  shall  the  earth  and 
spirit-life  be  linked  by  a  bond  of  revelation  ;  look  to  the 
stars,  for  across  their  faces  shall  you  see  written  all  that 
is  needful  to  be  known  by  mortals  ;  preserve  the  emblems 
of  spiritual  power,  for  they  shall  infuse  you  with  an  es- 
sence compounded  by  the  shades  of  death  ;  upon  you  has 
now  been  bestowed  knowledge  that  shall  come  to  none 
other ;  see  that  it  shall  be  exercised  rightfully,  for  the 
power  that  grants  can  also  take  away.' 

"  Having  delivered  this  mysterious  revelation,  the  least 
meaning  of  which  words  I  could  not  understand,   the 


NEW    ORLEANS NEGRO    SUPERSTITIONS.  597 

scene  dissolved  entirely,  and  I  was  again  caught  up  in  a 
whirlwind  which  bore  me  rapidly  back  to  the  place  from 
whence  I  was  so  mysteriously  taken.  My  mother  was 
very  much  offended  with  me  for  being  so  long  perform- 
ing the  errand,  but  when  I  told  her  the  cause  of  my  de- 
tention she  was  at  once  satisfied  and  asked  me  to  repeat, 
minutely,  all  that  had  transpired  during  the  time  I  was 
under  spiritual  influence.  I  told  her  all,  but  confessed 
that  I  could  not  understand  the  meaning  of  the  strange 
words  spoken  to  me.  She  replied:  « Never  mind,  my 
daughter,  I  had  an  experience  somewhat  like  that  which 
has  just  befallen  you,  though  I  perceive  you  have  been 
given  greater  power  than  ever  I  possessed ;  it  is  not  nec- 
essary now  that  you  should  comprehend  what  was  told 
you  ;  but  try  and  remember  the  words,  the  meaning  will 
be  well  understood  when  you  are  seven  years  older.' 

< '  From  the  time  I  was  so  mysteriously  visited  until 
seven  more  years  had  expired,  I  felt  no  abnormal  power, 
but  at  the  age  of  fourteen  I  became  clairvoyant  and  could 
look  in  upon  another  world  ;  spirits  became  my  constant 
companions  and  they  continually  gave  me  information  of 
great  importance ;  then  I  was  applied  to  by  many  who 
became  acquainted  with  my  marvellous  gift  of  forecast, 
until,  at  length,  I  became  a  professional  fortune-teller ; 
I  have  followed  this,  by  spiritual  direction,  for  over  fifty 
years,  yet  in  all  that  time  I  have  never  made  a  mistake 
in  forecasting  events.  For  another  dollar  I  will  tell  you 
truly  everything  liable  to  happen  in  the  future,  that  con- 
cerns your  interests/' 

I  was  very  much  interested  in  the  gracious  lie  told  me 
with  such  gilt-edged  hypercriticalness  by  the  ancient,  be- 
draggled sorceress,  but  I  had  even  a  greater  interest  in 
the  young  girl,  and  therefore  paid  an  extra  dollar  in 
order  to  pursue  my  investigations  further.  Thereupon 


598  MYSTERIES   AND   MISERIES. 

the  old  crone  took  my  hand  and  inspected  the  palm  with 
apparently  curious  interest  for  several  minutes  ;  she  next 
enquired  my  .exact  age,  after  which  she  consulted  the 
stars,  and  then  began  to  unfold  the  scroll  of  my  past  life 
as  well  as  to  lift  the  curtain  that  concealed  the  future. 
She  talked  with  great  rapidity,  as  if  repeating  a  well-com- 
mitted formula,  as  I  have  no  doubt  it  was.  But  though 
she  guessed  widely  of  the  truth  concerning  events  that 
had  transpired,  I,  nevertheless,  encouraged  and  pleased  her 
by  expressing  wonder  at  the  revelations  she  had  made, 
and  by  the  several  means  employed  I  gained  both  her 
confidence  and  good  will. 

The  initiatory  as  well  as  the  fortune-telling  ceremonies 
having  now  been  completed,  I  sat  back  in  my  chair  as 
though  intending  to  spend  an  indefinite  period  with  her, 
and  then  asked  the  crone  if  she  had  any  children. 

"Only  one,"  she  responded,  "that  daughter  over 
there,  and  the  prettiest  girl  in  New  Orleans,  too,  she  is." 

"  If  that  is  your  daughter,  I  have  no  hesitancy  in  cor- 
roborating what  you  say  concerning  her  beauty,"  was 
my  reply. 

I  then  spoke  to  the  girl,  and  was  glad  to  find  her  very 
communicative  after  the  first  words  were  spoken ;  my 
flattery  touched  a  responsive  chord  and  she  tried  to  show 
her  appreciation  of  the  compliment  by  giving  me  a  gen- 
erous attention.  I  was  surprised  at  her  intelligence,  but 
her  marvellous  beauty  exaggerated  every  attribute  in  my 
eye.  After  a  short  preliminary  conversation  I  asked  her 
several  questions,  disguised  so  as  not  to  give  offense, 
which  caused  her  to  disclose  her  social  surroundings. 
She  confessed  that  her  companionship  was  not  among  the 
Creoles,  whom  she  regarded  as  "poor  colored  trash," 
and  finally  acknowledged  that  her  favors  were  divided 
among  two  of  the  aristocratic  young  bloods  of  New  Or- 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO   SUPERSTITIONS.  599 

leans,  one  of  whom  she  expressed  an  expectation  of  mar- 
rying. All  her  conversation  betokened  a  modest  de- 
meanor and  some  cultivation,  which  I  was  quite  sure  she 
could  not  have  acquired  among  the  immediate  influences 
of  her  home  or  through  advantages  given  by  the  old  sor- 
ceress. 

I  spent  more  than  an  hour  talking  with  the  Creole 
girl,  and  of  a  truth,  the  longer  I  conversed  with  her  the 
more  beautiful  she  appeared  to  grow.  Her  eyes  were 
like  brown  diamonds,  and  blazed  out  in  that  dingy  room 
until  every  object  seemed  flooded  with  a  reflex  of  daz- 
zling splendor;  her  nose  was  a  pure  Grecian,  and  every 
feature  wore  the  chaste  perfection  of  Paris'  bride  when 
she  made  Troy  delirious  with  admiration. 

Time  had  flown  too  rapidly  during  the  latter  part  of 
my  tour  through  Creole-town ;  I  had  investigated  with 
excellent  fortune  and  found  a  rara  genus,  a  sight  of 
which  was  worth  more  than  the  two  dollars  I  had  paid 
her  mother.  When  at  last  I  arose  to  depart,  the  little 
Creole  extended  a  hand  which,  in  shaking,  I  found  was 
warm,  almost  hot,  and  she  said  good-bye  in  a  tone  that 
betrayed  some  regret. 

Some  days  after  my  strange  experience  with  the  sorcer- 
ess and  her  daughter,  I  paid  a  visit  to  a  fashionable  re- 
sort on  the  outskirts  of  New  Orleans,  called  the  West 
End.  This  is  a  delightful  spot,  and  during  the  summer 
season  its  natural  charms  are  very  much  increased  by  the 
gay  society  people  who  congregate  there,  give  parties, 
hold  levees,  drive,  and  enjoy  themselves  in  various  diver- 
tisements.  Chief  among  the  objects  .of  interest  at  West 
End  is  a  small  parterre  called  the  French  Puzzle,  which  is 
situate  near  the  principal  hotel.  As  you  walk  through 
the  grounds  that  ad  join  this  main  hotel,  elegant  beds  of 
flowers  of  every  variety  are  observed,  all  laid  out  in  the 


BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 


600  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

most  exquisite  manner  until,  at  length,  you  reach  one 
particular  spot  which,  in  point  of  beauty,  far  exceeds  all 
the  rest.  Entering  through  a  little  gate  the  walk  among 
these  elegant  beds  of  flowers  begins.  After  a  short  stroll 
you  are  somewhat  surprised  at  finding  yourself  at  the  en- 
trance gate  again,  but  egress  is  now  impossible,  because 
of  a  wire  fence  which  is  apparently  endless.  Once 
within  the  enclosure  all  effort  to  get  out  again  is  futile 
except  by  following  a  labyrinthian  path  which  grows  con- 
stantly more  confusing  until  after  a  brisk  ten  minutes' 
walk  you  emerge'  at  a  gate  opposite  the  one  entered. 

It  was  while  visiting  West  End  on  the  occasion  re- 
ferred to  that,  by  chance,  I  met  the  little  Creole  girl 
again,  and,  strange  enough,  too,  we  met  while  treading  the 
devious  ways  already  described,  going  in  opposite  direc- 
tions, which  brought  us  to  a  halt,  face  to  face.  But  she 
was  not  alone,  for  a  handsome  cavalier  bore  her  com- 
pany, upon  whose  arm  she  hung  lightly  and  lovingly. 
Our  recognition  was  quick  and  mutual  and  she  insisted 
not  only  in  giving  a  recognition  but  also  upon  introducing 
me  to  her  companion.  He  was  an  uncommonly  hand- 
some young  fellow,  while  both  his  manners  and  dress 
gave  unmistakable  evidence  of  his  high  birth  and  educa- 
tion. I  expected  he  would  manifest  some  uneasiness  at 
being  found  in  the  company  of  a  Creole,  but  his  conduct 
was  directly  the  opposite,  for  he  appeared  proud  of  the 
girl,  whose  beauty  had,  no  doubt,  hedged  his  heart  so 
completely  as  to  drive  his  soul  into  his  eyes.  Who  could 
blame  him  ?  More  than  one  man  of  aristocratic  lineage 
has  laid  his  heart  under  the  feet  of  a  colored  beauty, 
though  I  cannot  say  that  any  such  temptation  ever  pur- 
sued me.  We  talked  together  for  several  minutes  and, 
iipon  parting,  I  was  asked  to  call  on  the  young  gentle- 
man, who  proved  to  be  the  son  of  a  wealthy  cotton 


NEW  ORLEANS — NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS.      601 

merchant,  doing  business  on  a  street   near  the   levee. 

Before  leaving  New  Orleans,  I  thought  of  the  young 
man  and  decided  to  see  him,  particularly  to  discover  his 
true  relations  with  the  Creole  girl.  It  was  my  good  for- 
tune to  find  him  in  his  father's  office,  and  he  appeared 
glad  to  see  me.  After  conversing  with  him  for  a  time 
on  general  matters,  I  became  specific  and  asked  him 
how  long  he  had  known  the  girl  he  was  escorting  at 
West  End,  and  also  told  him  my  experience  in  Creole- 
town.  I  was  certainly  astonished  at  the  answer  he 
made  me. 

Said  he  :  <  *  I  have  been  acquainted  with  that  girl  for 
'about  two  years,  and  the  moment  I  first  saw  her  she  had 
me  a  complete  captive.  As  it  has  been  my  good  fortune 
to  have  considerable  means,  I  have  taken  great  pleasure 
in  giving  her  several  advantages,  so  that  she  now  possesses 
a  fair  education  and  is  the  most  accomplished  guitarist  in 
New  Orleans ;  more  than  this,  notwithstanding  the  ad- 
verse character  of  her  surroundings,  she  combines  the 
most  noble  traits  of  womanhood  with  a  beauty  that  you 
can  bear  testimony  to.  I  will  tell  you  further,  that  ad- 
miration is  a  small  part  of  the  relations  I  bear  toward 
her,  for  I  love  her  with  all  the  ardor  that  a  warm-blooded 
Southerner  can  bestow,  and  we  will  be  married  next  No- 
vember, should  there  be  no  interposition  of  providence. 
My  parents  know  nothing  concerning  either  my  acquaint- 
ance or  intentions  toward  the  girl — or  lady,  I  should  call 
her — and  when  they  learn  of  my  marriage  with  her,  I 
expect  them  to  raise  a  big  thunder-storm,  together  with 
lightning,  wind  and  rain  accompaniments,  but  they  can't 
raise  a  storm  big  enough  to  blow  her  from  me,  and  the 
sun  will  come  out  again  just  as  it  does  after  every  other 
storm.  What  I  have  told  you,  remember,  is  confiden- 
tial ;  I  am  anxious  to  keep  secret  my  love  for  bonnie  lit- 


602  MYSTERIES    AND    MISERIES. 

tie ,  for  you  understand,  that  should  the  fact  be- 
come generally  known  it  might  cause  trouble." 

I  was  astonished  at  the  frank  admissions  this  young 
man,  so  well  connected,  made ;  there  was  no  occasion 
for  surprise  in  the  acknowledgment  that  he  greatly  ad- 
mired the  Creole  girl,  for  she  was  irresistibly  beautiful, 
but  I  could  hardly  understand  how  a  Southerner,  all  of 
whom  are  supposed  to  yield  everything  to  their  bitter 
race  prejudice,  could  so  confess  his  love  and  declare  his 
intentions.  He  told  me,  however,  that  marriages  be- 
tween prominent  white-  men  and  beautiful  Creoles  are  not 
occurrences  so  uncommon  as  to  excite  wonder,  and  then 
cited  instances  that  had  fallen  under  his  own  observation. 
Despite  myself,  I  could  not  help  applauding  the  frank 
devotion  this  young  lover  exhibited  ;  it  requires  a  brave 
heart  to  go  through  life's  battles,  but  there  is  every  evi- 
dence that  the  pretty  Creole's  lover  will  wave  the  banner 
of  domestic  happiness  over  every  difficulty  that  may 
interpose  between  his  wife,  himself  and  the  world. 

This  episode  in  Southern  life  is  an  excellent  example 
of  the  power  which  love  exercises  over  all  human  nature, 
and  it  serves  to  show  that  no  prejudice  can  be  so  firmly 
implanted  in  any  race  but  that  the  bonds  of  affection 
may  uproot  it. 

Social  life  in  the  beautiful  Southern  Metropolis  is  seen 
to  best  advantage  during  a  brief  season  immediately  pre- 
ceding Lent.  New  Orleans  has  a  peculiarly  cosmopoli- 
tan population  which  is  largely  Catholic  in  religion,  and 
church  observances  are  so  general  as  to  constitute  a  fea- 
ture of  the  city's  social  life.  Nowhere  else  on  either 
continent  are  the  festivals  of  Mardi  Gras  so  magnificently 
celebrated,  or  to  which  such  large  crowds  of  visitors  are 
attracted.  The  latter  part  of  February,  at  which  time 
these  festivities  are  inaugurated,  is  the  beginning  of  the 


NEW   ORLEANS — NEGRO   SUPERSTITIONS.  603 

spring  season  in  New  Orleans,  when  a  delicious  air  steal- 
ing through  orange  groves  that  are  full  of  fast  maturing 
fruit,  makes  the  South,  at  this  season,  positively  delight- 
ful. People  from  all  parts  of  the  nation,  combining  in 
large  excursion  parties,  visit  New  Orleans  to  witness  the 
gorgeous  panorama  that  is  presented  with  unexampled 
elaborateness  by  what  is  known  as  the  "  Mystic  Krew," 
an  organization  that  has  accomplished  great  good  for 
New  Orleans  by  way  of  drawing  immense  crowds  who 
annually  leave  among  the  citizens  a  large  sum  of  money 
for  their  entertainment.  Canal  street,  being  the  most 
prominent  as  well  as  broadest  thoroughfare  in  the  city,  is 
gorgeously  decorated  on  these  occasions  and  through  its 
beautiful  ornamentation  the  Mardi  Gras  pageant,  which, 
as  it  distributes  its  lines  and  grows  into  a  procession  miles 
in  length,  presents  a  scene  of  bewildering  pleasure.  Ob- 
servation points  and  windows  along  the  line  of  march  are 
frequently  rented  by  visitors  at  as  much  as  twenty-five 
dollars  an  evening. 

When  the  procession  disbands,  another  season  of  rev- 
elry is  inaugurated,  despite  the  restrictive  proscription's 
of  Catholic  creeds,  and  New  Orleans,  for  a  time,  resumes 
the  magnificent  social  festivities  which  distinguished  her 
aristocratic  society  before  the  war.  Thus,  Mardi  Gras 
celebrations,  aside  from  being  a  prominent  feature  in 
Southern  life,  have  been  productive  of  inestimable  bene- 
fits upon  the  nation  at  large,  for  they  have  assisted  largely 
in  renewing  the  fraternal  ties  which  so  long  remained  un- 
broken between  the  North  and  South  ;  besides,  they  have 
advertised  the  beauties  and  advantages  of  New  Orleans. 

One  of  the  most  delightful  trips  that  can  be  made  on 
the  continent  is  from  New  Orleans  to  the  jetties.  St. 
John's  River,  Florida,  is  an  interesting  stream,  chiefly 
because  along  its  banks  grows  a  wild  profusion  of  tropi- 


604  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

cal  vegetation,  and  glimpses  may  also  be  had  of  large 
water  reptiles  and  many  bright  plumaged  birds  ;  but  below 
New  Orleans  there  are  sights  much  grander  than  any  of 
these  ;  for  those  who  delight  in  looking  upon  the  curious 
species  of  animal  life,  there  may  be  found  much  to  amuse 
their  sight  on  a  trip  to  the  jetties  ;  alligators  cover  every 
large  log  and  lay  in  numbers  along  the  banks,  dreaming 
and  catching  flies  ;  immense  turtles,  living  between  fresh 
and  salt  water,  bask  their  commissured  backs  on  logs, 
rocks  or  banks  ;  pelicans,  flamingos  and  gulls  people  the 
air  in  moving  lines,  and  as  you  pass  through  the  jetties, 
schools  of  porpoises  are  seen  curvetting  on  rolling  seas. 
But  these  sights  are  not  to  be  compared  with  the  other 
natural  beauties  which  distinguish  this  short  water  route  ; 
on  either  side  the  land  extends  in  a  level  plane,  revealing 
orange  groves,  rice  plantations,  beautiful  palms  and  a 
rank  growth  of  evergreen  plants  that  are  curiously  at- 
tractive. Fort  St.  Philip,  nearly  mid-way  between  New 
Orleans  and  the  river  mouth,  is  a  place  interesting  in  its 
dissolution  and  memory  of  the  part  it  played  in  1862, 
when  so  many  Union  gunboats  and  transports  were  sunk 
by  its  guns.  Pilot  Town,  an  ancient  village  at  the  jet- 
ties, is  a' quaint  place,  standing,  as  it  does,  upon  boards 
and  short  piles ;  the  ground  is  of  such  a  mobile  charac- 
ter that  a  person  trusting  himself  upon  it  would  disap- 
pear as  in  a  quick- sand.  The  people  derive  their  sup- 
port from  piloting  steamers,  running  tow-boats,  catching 
red-snapper  fish,  crabs  and  oysters  ;  near  the  Chandeleur 
reefs  are  large  beds  of  Mobile  oysters,  that  are  brought 
up  to  New  Orleans  and  retailed  at  fifty  cents  per  barrel, 
which  is  regarded  as  a  remunerative  price.  The  Missis- 
sippi River  at  the  jetties  is  filled  with  steamers,  sailing 
vessels,  tow-boats,  fishing  smacks  and  fruit  boats  ;  these 
latter  are  brought  in  laden  heavily  with  bananas,  cocoa- 


NEW  ORLEANS NEGRO  SUPERSTITIONS. 


605 


606  MYSTERIES   AND    MISERIES. 

nuts,  pine-apples  and  conch-shells,  and  are  manned  by 
weather-beaten,  dusky-skinned  Mexicans  and  Italians, 
who  submit  themselves  to  many  dangers,  crossing  the 
Gulf  in  such  frail  barks,  and  are  contented  with  a  very 
small  profit  on  their  cargoes. 

The  climate  about  Pilot  Town  is  almost  like  perpetual 
summer,  tempered  by  cooling  Gulf  breezes  and  tropical 
winds,  which  conjunctively  prevail  to  make  the  air  per- 
ennially delightful,  while  before  the  eye  there  moves  an 
ever  shifting  view  by  river  and  sea,  and  a  meeting  of 
waters  that  assemble  to  exchange,  in  Runic  rhyme, 
strange  stories  gathered  from  the  uttermost  bounds  of 
the  earth. 


m 


